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.