Wanda Lea Brayton, World Poetry Featured Poet from the USA!

World Poetry Featured Poet

I am proud to present Wanda Lea Brayton, a supporter of World Poetry who has sent poems for our  World Poetry Reading Series interactive poetry displays at the Vancouver Public Library , Central Branch, Vancouver, BC, Canada,  Richmond Cultural Centre, Richmond, BC, and the World Poetry New Westminster, Poems for Peace which were sent to the Peace Tower among other World Poetry events. Wanda is much appreciated  for her poetry and outreach to our World Poetry Family.

Wanda writes:
“I am a former college librarian and construction news reporter, writing poetry since 1973. Some of my poems have been accepted by Hudson View Poetry Digest, The Pedestal Magazine, Oak Bend Review, Main Street Rag, aquirelle and Clackamas Literary Review. Various poems of mine have been read on the World Poetry Cafe Radio station in Vancouver and on World Poetry displays there, as well (including the Pablo Neruda birthday celebration) and another poem was further exhibited at the John Lennon Peace Tower in Iceland.  For more information email: feathersofhope@yahoo.com

With Casual Breath
 Inspired by Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet XVII

I do not love you with casual breath, an unconscious act by which I only exist – no, I inhale your scent and am captured in flight, a wingéd creature with oceans of sky to traverse, lost inside torrid thermals rising above mountainous ranges with purpose, and with feasts of pure song.

 I do not love you when the fire wanes on the hearth, its glow fading deep into night, final sparks ascending into the realm of innocent dream – no, I embrace your warmth as we lay curled together, fluttering flames that will not cease to illuminate our surroundings with sweeter solace, scattering stars.

 I will not love you as the sun claims its position among billowing clouds, filtering sepia light where shadows would shiver among the trees, petals drifting as fruit becomes ripe and falls into our outstretched hands, a gentle harvest unimaginable to those who weep in their empty abodes, alone with memories.

I cannot love you with mere vagaries or ablutions, for they could not contain the vastness of this utter delight, this burrowing beneath my bones that causes my heart to sway within its fragile folds, where life burgeons forth – no, I cannot regale you only with hands or with words, for they could never define these elegant sonatas you etch upon my very soul from the simple complexities of your gaze.

Wanda Lea Brayton (C)