March Senryū 2017

for embracing new life with all its challenges

in one-hundred words | she writes him a love poem | an hasta luego
| maybe another forty | to say aloha again

dancing mid-street | not acting any age | trying to wake up 

unheard voices | speak to us in images | herstory muses

not an afterthought | who you think of while pruning | all of your roses

lonely people | in Japan they rent out cats | here spend days on-line

then she walked loveblind | into a new life chapter | it was much later
| she discovered his role | trivial to her story

an eclipse of light | you stand in the door | occulting the sun

dragons and snakes | soaring / seeking perspective | opposites attract

we won't say your name | you will forever be | just number 45

crow hitches a ride | posing as hood ornament | old time GPS

morning's afterbirth | rainbow rings around the sun | ice crystals bent light

she felt the bones break | before she ever got beat | she got so tired
| of a life dodging violence | before she could escape

trouble... the water | that needs healing like we do | pray for the answers
| sing the water whole again | if we believe we can

we don't grow old | our bodies wear and tear | there's no replacement parts

blood ties not always | as strong as those bonds we form | friends as familia

lugar mágico | donde fui concebida | entre mezquite
| y nopal brotando | flores de sol y sangre

World Poetry Day | let's all put down our weapons | unite in the word
| in flower and song offered | for peace and love to prevail

Spring is in motion | US climate glacial ice | waiting for the thaw

she cannot die | a person who creates | she was never born
| she transcends time and space | becoming and existence

what was hidden | heart in the present moment | brought into being

defrag your mind | fill in those gaps caused by hate | recall slows us down

easy amnesia | another word for denial | erase blasted pasts
| pretend we were all saints | we had no help sinning

can't lose everything | if you give it all away | sit in stillness

before time or space | lived dark where ego is killed | swirls unseen forces

her everyday eats | poems to calm a torment | non-monotonous

gap-toothed pain while ailing | from alien greed | craters in the head

a gypsy poet | with no birthplace monument | born on the road

a force to embrace | women who carry water | who know how to pray

you can pretend | you don't love me anymore | I know the truth

heading west for home | a piece of my heart lives there | on Pacific's shore
| a door to a future-past | one that will always last

rain is falling | in the garden plants lift heads | give thanks to the frogs

Copyright © 2017 Odilia Galván Rodríguez. All Rights Reserved.

January Senryū 2015

for wings to fly above the bullshit  ✿⊱╮


she no longer knows | where she ends and he begins | it's a soul union

oh groove and rhythm | that marvelous soundtrack | of your crazy life

life is a dance | you can sit on the sidelines | get on up wallflowers

there's a difference | not forgetting or invoking | your name is not called | no summons to this hell | you left now rest in peace

we think the earth | a never ending resource | an oyster to scoop out

stuck with thinnest needles | to poke at what ails you | here's to our health

sometimes we just can't | there's no more of us to give | so we turn inward | take care of ourselves awhile | let other's figure it out

get out of your head | breathe into your navel | what does your gut say | what does your heart feel | forget the brain chatter

a beautiful remnant | a love lost | from a long ago past

your mind on deserts | on vast ancient ocean floors | where spirit waves flow

it's good medicine | half a forest in her cup | to heal winter ills

for all those who roam
those who have no home
even though there are plenty

for those who love the road
who are despised for this or
for being other

there are better days
for those who live free
stay brave within yourself

c/s


dirty laundry | should not be aired in public | wash your funk privately

she carries her own | heavy weight in a man’s world | takes care of business

honestly you were blind | now you see me | the one who’s no longer there

like beautiful flowers | we're born and don't understand | precious life is short

big wet kisses | from spirit-dog just passed | he's happy in his new home

flowers bloomed in snow | roots reached down into warm earth | delicate and strong

all souls are the same | no one's better than | the ones who we love

she races | erasure chases her | to overcome

ego knows no bounds | one must pull in on its reins | humble is better

what is in your heart | might not be what's on your mind | it's better to feel

to be held sure | where hearts do not doubt their love | to feel secure

when you thought you knew | who loved you and it turns out | it was never true

communication | breakdown no time for texting | find a real landline

when you begin to see | your faults as your own | instead of blame

full moon insomnia | full-wolf howling in the hills | chanting a story

when you’ve wished for | hurt and pain to disappear | stars to remind hearts | that without the bad no good | galaxies of joy to come

full-moon mood monsoon | a time to lie low | let it all go just relax

trees sang in their way | of silence is deafening | said don't ask believe



copyright © 2015 Odilia Galván Rodríguez.
All Rights Reserved.

December Senryū

For all the beauty that is this world
and all the joy and the anguish of being alive ~

✿⊱╮♥

store your hopes and dreams | shooting stars and giant redwoods |
in a bigger jar

tomorrow she's travelin' | to the trees to tell her | something 'bout next year | her heart hurts to see | images of relatives | unburied and frozen | spirits gone on home after | the merciless massacre

don't know how many | tears I can shed like this rain | that would be enough | to show you my sorrow | it will never be enough

I am my own tree | come from a tall and strong stand | not felled easily

billowy clouds | of corn masa mixed just right | grandmothers guiding |
first time hands spreading manna | from the heaven that formed us

she red dust in hand
blows it outward towards the sun
which refuses to shine
she a petite sorcerous
knows how to guide the wind

her heart fragile | because she despises hate | hurts for all humans

joy to the world | cease fire has come | all's quiet on the war front

from the darkness | a slight smile in the sky | she searches for the light

love has no color | but there's a kind of magic | we love who we love

what divides us | not just a stretch of blue | those 90 miles |
an abyss filled with stories | love and loss deep emotions

days get longer still | winter continues its dance | Spring's along way off

night throated train | singing down those cold tracks | reminds her she's alone

solstice longest night | days wax until they are long | again seasons change

a scratch the new moon | a slight shadow of itself | this winter solstice | as the year's shortest day | melts into the longest night

wind whipped mercilessly | with rain against windows | the people stayed home

she thinks of your lips | chafed from kissing her too much | makes her body blush

in amongst the trees | she hides secrets from prying | walls that have ears | like eyes that do not see | she's what they want her to be

river rushed in wide | races to reach overflow | its banks can not hold |
its force back to normal | after the bitter drought

abracadabra | my words have power | to create what I speak

wind is relentless | it speaks all through the night | tells of the coming |
solstice with its long night | while we rejoice the seasons

the storm's wet mouth | will not swallow us whole no | it brings relief |
from the dreaded drought that burns | that turns fields into dust storms

that young woman | in the photograph's a ghost | of who she once was | she is not her she's someone | whose lived many lives since then

she is in a dream | or just waking up from one | long ago one |
looks towards future sleepy eyed | in that instant a world changed

if it is wrong | for me to love you let me be | on the right path

the wind has claws and teeth |tries to shred up the roof | off of my house

let her love you | the way she wants to | with all her heart and soul

you wish that you'd met | again on this life's road | at least to say good-bye

we begin as seeds | sprout wild fly fast into being | unruffled our beauty | untangled innocence | mature into wisdom

full cold moon | your eye rimmedwith tears and shame | on what they have done

we witness | that without justice | there can be no peace
without justice | there can be no peace | no justice no peace
when we must raise our children | to be murdered anytime |
on these mean streets | by those whom we pay to protect us |
there is no justice | no justice
no peace


Copyright © 2014 Odilia Galván Rodríguez.
All Rights Reserved.