Judicious in yearning, squinting in the sun, drenched in impatience. The antidote:
a blanket, a notebook, a pen, a cup of tea. May twines through the heart:
lollygagging through nurseries for discounted perfumed mock orange,
deals on goji berries most likely to survive in the garden, to defy
the odds. Why does a view shine when you see it together
with your beloved? Plans to travel to a new country,
to a new town. Immutable and perfect, the portrait. The light. Your eyes.
Your faith and trust. Believing in sunshine. Believing
in summer. Settling in the calm and peace of now.
Relentless ambition of knowing. Listening to a music nobody else
can hear. You dance. You paint.
/////
Read more of Lucia Cherciu’s poems and reviews here on Lightwood. Scroll down and enter her name on our Search link. Her book of poetry, "Immigrant Prodigal Daughter," has been reviewsed here.
Lucia Cherciu is the author of six books of poetry, including Immigrant Prodigal Daughter (Kelsay Books, forthcoming 2023), Train Ride to Bucharest (Sheep Meadow Press, 2017), which received the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize, Edible Flowers (Main Street Rag, 2016), Lalele din Paradis / Tulips in Paradise (Editura Eikon, 2017), Altoiul Râsului / Grafted Laughter (Editura Brumar, 2010), and Lepădarea de Limbă / The Abandonment of Language (Editura Vinea, 2009). Her work was nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and three times for Best of the Net and has appeared in numerous publications. She received her Ph.D. in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with the dissertation titled “Luddicrous ‘Scribbling Women’: The Politics of Laughter and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers.” Cherciu is a Professor of English at SUNY / Dutchess Community College and served as the 2021-2022 Dutchess County, New York poet laureate. Her web page is http://luciacherciu.webs.com.
Lightwood 