Oh, childhood how I miss you: red fanfares in the park, clowns whose secrets nobody knew, little socks embroidered by mama; a horizon with no limits stretching his wings from my window to the sea.
I can smell you, my childhood, lemons and oranges on the old streets, sugar on my fresh lips, cranes on the top of the chimneys.
Eyes bursting in the light of traffic signals and closing at softness of the afternoon poplars.
One day, the city cried, a fresco of pain and smog, rapid steps, cars crashing, my memory arrested. I lost my way.
I write with my back to the windows, mama gone, your right hand on my shoulder. Love, I am still looking for my way.
For five times in twenty-four hours, I face in the direction of the sea.
The first time the morning star floats above the water as innocent as the breast of a young girl. Soon the sun will try to catch her naked and burn her skin. She will escape. Pigeons will carry her across the sea. She will melt into yellow waters. Her last rays will fall in my lap like feathers.
I will rejoice.
The second time, divorced from her night bed, the light disperses itself on the shore. I can see myself washing clothes in the sea. My hair is tied in a ponytail. I am barefoot, and my dress is rolled up. The skin of my lips is cracked. I bleed. The clothes I wash smell cedar and spices. The shadow of a seagull positions itself on my forehead. The sea reflects the twelve signs of the zodiac. I can see no relationship between my destiny and that which I do. I am scared.
At noon, the sun kneads the waters with rapture. Shells shed pearls on the shore. My own rational thought leaves my body. I delight in the waves like a gazelle in the grasslands. I feel the movement of the water on my skin. Its cyclical quality sends me in a state of ecstasy. No, it is not the ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Ávila. It is something similar to a soporific trance. I am dead, and I am alive at the same time. I come from the sea. I return to the sea.
In the afternoon, my rational self awakes. My mind spreads its wings. I get preoccupied with verbs. I set one triangle in the normal position, and I invert the other one. I bind them together. I make myself a dress from pieces of paper inscribed with old symbols. Oh, femininity! You are the goddess of vines, the mother earth, the chalice, the blood, the fertility of the womb. I mull over these desperate efforts to equalize the feminine with the masculine. There is nothing in these symbols that points to the intellect of a woman.
In the evening, the sky stretches itself from blue to dark violet. The silk of the gloves hugs my fingers. I feed my iguana with cookies soaked in champagne. She hisses at me. I open a package of silk stockings. The door opens by itself. You step in. I stare at you. You are in by your own volition. One kiss and you borrow my tears. One touch, and I borrow your pain. A passage rite. I keep a coffin adorned with lilies in my bedroom. I sleep besides death like Sarah Bernhardt.
Did you hear that noise? A rosary fell from the Spanish chest.
The wind slips between the petals of a rose and opens it.
Who am I? If I knew, I would tell you.
Did you say you love me? The twenty-four hours are up. Nobody is facing in the direction of the sea anymore.
I cannot tell which of the wounds I acquired hurts the most. I gather all of them in a large wicker basket. Every summer morning I sort them out. I re-live each of them.
I see how the Lie walks hand in hand with the Betrayal, and how the Betrayal indulges herself in the sweetest of wine. Oh, that irresistible taste of black grapes that melts in her mouth. It almost makes her attractive.
The Envy wears red lipstick and high heels. She dances naked on a wooden table. At every turn, she spreads poisonous confetti in the air, and lowers her eyes. I try to decipher the meaning of her gestures. I cannot.
The Greed, with her childbearing hips, indulges herself with poor souls who live at the margins of the city. The children are hungry, and the mother long exhausted. The beds are cold. The moonlight enters the room through broken windows.
I feel the pulse in my temples. Exhausted I go over the meaning of love and sacrifice. I try to restore them to the right place.
Love is the consummation of all acts leading to the warm meal one hands to an old man during winters. It is the sum of all unknowns. It is the finger that draws stars in the darkest of skies.
Sacrifice? You tell me.
Sightly revised version of the original published in Women: Splendor and Sorrow :I Love Poems and Poetic Prose
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose in Manhattan Book Review
In Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose, Gabriela Milton, presents an assorted collection that’s intended to invigorate the soul and speak to the depths of human understanding. She delineates her views on feminism, misogyny, passion, hate, spirituality, winning, and losing; while the most salient topic is love…
Milton’s poetic artistry is bold and beautiful, deep and confounding. It’s laced with gorgeous symbolism and imagery. For example, in “Love Numbers”, she writes, “We laid in the grass, shadows of poppies playing on our faces with the same rhythmicity of the waves on tranquil days.” In “Who Am I”, she notes, “I delight in the waves like a gazelle in the grasslands” and later states, “My mind spreads its wings.” Due to her gift in this area, college literature professors may find her work worthy of analysis and use. It is rich with an assortment of literary greats: personification; simile; and metaphor, just to name a few…
Overall, this collection is noteworthy in its uniqueness and eloquence. Many will likely savor the journey it invites them to travel and will gain insight into the powerful impact of poetry and prose on its connoisseurs.
Holding Your Hand – poem included in Woman: Splendor and Sorrow
I walk through the future holding your hand Barefoot I pray to a God whose name I don’t know The rain washes our hearts engraved in the wood The child is the flower of tears and of sweet blood It’s not love that we want It’s the resurrection of dead The breaths that the sea kills with her looks Your hands and the sin we will never commit The room that we rented is empty and cold You know that I came You feel that I left I hear your voice Black coffee waits for the sunrise of us And the future runs in the past
You can get my book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose on Amazon
Updates
Thank you again to those who enter the poetry contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow. I hope to announce the winners at the end of October.
Help our literary community strive. Do not forget to read, like, and submit to MasticadoresUSA.
Our sun ripped apart by the gallop of an Arabian horse. Sand & blood. Memories of our Sahara: the Sahara in which fate played games. Spaces, times, light crawl upon each other like flapping fish in a net. The enigma of to be. The simplicity of me. I #miss you. #vss365#poempic.twitter.com/XtPMANNis9
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 22, 2021
Poetry Contest
My Dear Readers,
To honor the community who have supported my writing journey and my work I plan to have a poetry contest in September. I will ask you to write one poem inspired by a piece from my #1 Amazon Best-Selling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow and to list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. A number of poems from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow can be found on this blog. There will be prizes. More info about the contest coming up in September.
MasticadoresUSA update
Thanks to Juan, MasticadoresUSA has now a new beautiful theme. There are several new posts on the site. For me MasticadoresUSA is a labor of love. It is a way of giving back to the WP community. Thank you to everyone who supports this site.
You can read the work of your fellow poets and follow the site here.
Love to everyone.
#1 Amazon Best-Selling Poetry Collection (August 9&10) Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton:
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton #1 in Amazon Hot New Releases
Yesterday, August 9, 2021, my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was #1 in Amazon Hot New Releases, Poetry Subjects and Themes. Yesterday, I became a bestselling author.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have no words to tell you how humbled I am by your support, and by that of my followers from other social media outlets. Special thanks to my WP friends who are going through challenging times, and yet they still find ways to support and encourage me.
Equally, special thanks to my family, and to that wonderful person in my life who is a renowned and accomplished academic and author in his own right, and who he is now the “wind beneath my wings.”
My Dear Readers,
Do not listen to any detractors. There will be people who will envy you. There will be people who will denigrate your work, and you personally. There will be people who will want to drag you down. Do not listen to them. Keep going. Keep shining. Keep writing. If I can do it you can do it too. I will support each one of you as much as I can.
Poetry Contest
To honor the community who have supported my writing journey and my work I plan to have a poetry contest in September. I will ask you to write one poem inspired by a piece from my book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow and to list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. There will be prizes. More info about the contest coming up in September.
MasticadoresUSA update
Thanks to Juan, MasticadoresUSA has now a new beautiful theme. There are several new posts on the site. For me MasticadoresUSA is a labor of love. It is a way of giving back to the WP community. Thank you to everyone who supports this site.
You can read the work of your fellow poets and follow the site here.
Love to everyone.
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton:
Farewell to you Andalucía, to gypsy moons & to the music of your breasts. Frantic nights, wounds that never heal. White shirts, heated bodies, pulsing veins, rhythmic blood. A woman wears her wedding band around her neck. #Farewell to you my matador Te amo para siempre #vss365pic.twitter.com/ZQooDZXons
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 28, 2021
Updates on Woman: Splendor and Sorrow
Amazon US – on August 4 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was in the top 17 new release bestsellers for poetry by women. Number 16 Louise Glück who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Running right behind her like on August 2. Humbled beyond words.
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Amazon Ca – Today, August 6 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is in the top #19 new release bestsellers for poetry by women in Canada. Again humbled beyond words.
My dear followers, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind support.
