White Rains and Other Poems

By Lorraine Caputo

White Rains

I.
Afternoons the heavens
grey, layer upon thick
layer of looming clouds,
thunder crumpling

	then silenced by

		the rain that dampens
		lanes, streaks white-washed
		walls of Ciudad Blanca.


II.
Sometimes the thunder awaits
the dusk to sweep the streets
clean of another day.


III.
One late day, as the sun
painted a clearing sky,
a rainbow arced over
the forest-jade hills
as this courtyard garden again
was dampened by a shower.

Neverending

Again rain falls all day, all night
pooling on the terrace, flowing
down the tejas, shimmering bright
in the sparse moonlight, faint glowing,
the rain’s rhythm steady, growing,
still falling, flowing, swirling down, 
the bare breeze so slightly blowing
around adobe homes, raw brown. 

Surrendering to Wakefulness

In this pre-dawn hour,
a light rain wets
the rough lava soil,
the sea rolls evenly,

breaking its white
caps in the 
near distance,

a chirp of some creature,
the click of geckos …

	& I surrender my self
	to wakefulness,
	not able to slip
        into sleep again,
	
        not willing to slip
	into strange dreams
        that again, this night
	
        disturb the peace
	of these Enchanted Isles.

River of the People of the Clouds

The Utcubamba
scribbles a thin valley through
these mountains swathed in
clouds, banks lush green, cliffs like the
crafted stone walls of Kuélap.

Turbulence

Agitated by waking life
I finally repose after 2 a.m.,
lying like a corpse,
my body, my mind relaxing

Visualizing the beauty
of another day of life,
the people who teach me

          & the hummingbird
          zigzagging across
          the rooftop terrace,
          mating dragonflies
          darting by,
          the yellow swallowtail fluttering
          around the patio, spiraling
          higher & higher
          to freedom

But yet the invisible creatures
of worries, doubts & fears
nibble at my body

          All night I travel,
          visiting Kuma
          in New York City,
          Cloud in Arkansas,
          I go to see 
          a woman who fled
          death threats lurking
          in her Wayu’u
         dreamland

& I awaken after dawn
exhausted
& my hair
windswept

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 300 journals on six continents; and 20 collections of poetry – including On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019) and Caribbean Interludes (Origami Poems Project, 2022). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011) and nominated for the Best of the Net. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth. Follow her travels at: www.facebook.com/lorrainecaputo.wanderer or https://latinamericawanderer.wordpress.com.