Arts Alive San Antonio

Today we are offering our readers two gifts – an eloquent poem and The Rose Named Love. The former was written by San Antonio poet Lisha Adela Garcia, and the rose was planted, cultivated and photographed – as well as named – by artist Barbara Johnson. Enjoy! And let us know if you would like to see more poetry and art.

Centered Down

By Lisha Adela Garcia

I can show you pictures of elders smiling in empty rooms
as earth recalibrates its wings
and gives words to a leaf
unfurling for the first time.

When we meet again,
I will tell you about a prayerful life
and immediately accept your story
from the broken temple of aloneness.

Centered down, I will discover
the meaning behind a recurring nightmare
and that a holy being
enters my dreams
so, I too, can have a holy center.

I will share that I moved my shamrocks to the front porch
prayed for Loretta, my poet sister, as her cancer returns.
I will tell you I handed over my wounded
history in a knapsack to be buried at dawn.

The censer assures me in sandalwood smoke,
that this time is a gift to the water
so dolphins can once again,
swim in the Grand Canal of Venice.

Centered down, articulated exile
breaks easily the thread
of collective isolation
and gathers a new harvest
 of manna from Zoom.

Centered down, I will remember the word: interregnum
and how Jane Hirschfield describes the courage
of a black ant as it treks across a blue pillow.