Live Encounters Poetry & Writing March 2024.
Breath, poems by Alicia Viguer-Espert.
Breath
I start an angry conversation
from my front steps to the altar of worry,
reject carved wooden benches from church,
the mundane and the gift of rational thinking,
until your soft hand on my thigh whispers,
enough, our love is wider, thicker, stronger
than this mindless argument.
We inhale and suddenly I notice
that vast space from where we take
a breath of air, and what’s air
but what ties the body to the soul?
Once we stop, the soul is free to go,
the body remains a pile of minerals
incapable of soaring an inch from earth.
I continue glancing at this empty space
full of oxygen, nitrogen, argon, other
minor gases nobody remembers.
Observe the pump of our lungs, assisted
by noses of different shapes and colors
carrying inside our bodies that ethereal
sustenance natural to every living being.
And when after the fight calmness
returns slowing down my heartbeat,
my soul, like a timid but savvy child,
comes out of the darkness of agitation
to teach my breath the lithest of games
which guides my sight into seeing
what is beyond what I see.
The Damage
© Alicia Viguer-Espert
Alicia Viguer-Espert, born and raised in the Mediterranean city of Valencia, Spain, lives in Los Angeles. A three times Pushcart nominee, she has been published in Lummox Anthologies, Altadena Poetry Review, ZZyZx, Panoply, Rhyvers, River Paw Press, Amethyst Review, Odyseey.pm, and Live Encounters among others. Her chapbooks To Hold a Hummingbird, Out of the Blue Womb of the Sea and 4 in 1, focus on language, identity, home, nature, and soul. In addition to national and international publications, she is included in “Top 39 L.A. Poets of 2017,” “Ten Poets to Watch in 2018,” and “Bards of Southern California: Top 30 poets,” by Spectrum.