by Alicia Viguer-Espert
I woke up Biblical today, want to be still, empty myself of myself, so, the waters of grace will gather in the valley of consciousness. It’s a plan, thwarted by a flood of thoughts rushing into that same valley pushing themselves with the urgency of a swelling tsunami: items from the to-do-list, the sardonic remark only now I can think of responding, the zoom light being too bright which has to be modified, perhaps I should take a hot bath to relax, before the phone rings and I begin to consider a sauce for the scallops tonight. My memory leaps to Blas de Otero’s Pido la Paz y la Palabra, he said, and it was given, his poems rolled like oats in the breakfast bowl of his mind. The universe waits for my peace offering but my effort to quiet the mind amplifies the internal mechanisms of the body, rushing blood, ticking heart, expanding lungs, everything vibrates, at their own accord, I assume. Their thunder-like sounds scare me, I’ll try again tomorrow.
Born in Valencia, Spain, Alicia Viguer-Espert was raised in a bilingual household of Castilian and Valencian, travelled the world, learned English as an adult, began writing in English in 2017 and that same year was the winner of the 2017 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Book. She writes about her relationship to nature, identity, language, home, and soul while dreaming to elicit hope with her poetry. Her work has been published in national and international journals, anthologies, magazines, and web sites. Featured poet at numerous museums, art galleries, libraries, and poetry salons, Alicia is also a twice Pushcart nominee.