Margarita Engle
email englefam@earthlink.net
http://www.niederngasse.com/magazine/poetry/engle.html
Margarita Engle is a botanist and agronomist and the Cuban-American author of Singing to Cuba (Arte Publico Press), Skywriting (Bantam), and The Poet-Slave: A Biography in Poems of Juan Francisco Manzano (Henry Holt). Her work has appeared in Atlanta Review, California Quarterly, Caribbean Writer, and Thema. Her most recent book is Word Wings, a collection of poems for children (Elin Grace Publishing).
Margarita Engle is a botanist and the Cuban-American author of several books about the island, most recently The Poet Slave of Cuba, a Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano (Henry Holt & Co., April, 2006). Short works appear in a wide variety of anthologies and journals, such as Atlanta Review, Bilingual Review, California Quarterly, Caribbean Writer, Hawai'i Pacific Review, and Nimrod. Poems of peace are included in online collections, such as Poets Against the War, Writers Against War, and Greendove. Awards include a Cintas Fellowship, a San Diego Book Award, and a 2005 Willow Review Poetry Award. Margarita lives in central California, where she enjoys hiking and helping her husband with his volunteer work for a wilderness search-and-rescue dog training program.
Poetry by Margarita Engle
FLOATING MARKET
Some call it pidjin,
but Papiamento is a language of harmony--
words from many nations merge,
so that everyone in the Netherlands Antilles
is constantly learning a little more Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese,
English, French, along with tongues from
West Africa, Indonesia, and native tribes
of the Caribbean,
and mainland South America.
Venezuela is only thirty miles away
from the island of Curacao,
but when the floating market arrives in Willemstad at dawn,
islanders receive new words along with the flowers, fruit, tubers,
and greens, color of growth.
Fifty nationalities live together in peace
on an isle where everyone knows how it feels
to be the one striving to understand
and be understood.
BILINGUAL BIRDS
Bell birds in the cloud forest
and mockingbirds in the lowlands
quickly learn all the dialects
of territorial neighbors.
Each song is repeated
with musical nuances
while facing different directions,
keeping the peace with music
no need for battles
when a melody
of borderlines and nesting trees
can be understood
even in midair.
EL TAXISTA
The confused taxi driver
who lost his way
and left me stranded
in a strange city
in a foreign land
did not know
that decades later
I would look back
on that long, fearful trek
through lonely slums
with gratitude
finally realizing
that I had received a glimpse
of the desperation
slumdwellers endure
every day, every night,
and a glimpse of the joy
brought by each moment's survival
without an attack
or defense.
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Seeds of peace
the Giant Sequoia forest
still growing.
Scattering birdseed
we lure wild doves
away from hunters.
Mind of fog
while my grown children
bicker
I retreat to a sunroom
at the back of my mind.
Dusk
white doves
released
from their cages
enter the sunset.
Standing
in a doorway
between dreams
and daylight
the written word.
LIFE CYCLE
In the land of forgetfulness
truth is a tree
roots hidden
branches reaching
a season
of flowers--
fragrance
and then the seeds
of peace, peace,
to all
far and near
growth hidden.
LINKS
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... Equator - by Margarita Engle
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www.moondance.org | | Engle, Margarita. Singing to Cuba ...
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edocs.lib.sfu.ca | Engle, Margarita. Skywriting New ...
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www.terrain.org | Book Cover
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search.barnesandnoble.com | ... The Golden Apple by Margarita Engle
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www.terrain.org | ... in Cuba - by Margarita Engle
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www.verbsap.com | by Margarita Engle Format Paperback May
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www.bookfinder4u.com | Margarita Engle ISBN 0553377752
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www.bookfinder4u.com | t.net | ... Margarita Engle Publisher: Bantam
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www.campusi.com | by Margarita Engle
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www.moondance.org | by Margarita Engle
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Bilingual MCA
bravenet.com