Luiza De Mesquita

Azores, Portugal

After high school in Portugal, graduated in the Alliance Francaise of Paris. Member of the Portuguese Royal Canibet of Literature and of the Brazilian Institute of Arts. Worked for the American Embassy in Portugal and Brazil. Biographies published in "World Who's Who of Women" (Cambridge, UK) and various anthologies. Has published 9 books: "Ondas de Mare Cheia," "Mar Incerto," "Areias Movedicas," "Tempo de Mar, Tempo de Amar," "Caminhos do Mar," "Bateau de Papier," "Cantigas de Mar e Bem-Querer," "Mar de Sempre Acores" and "Ciclone." Lives in Winter Springs, Florida. Hobbies: Arts and Antiques.

Coming

Coming, you'll make all time
Begin once more:
What went before
Can't survive your heave and brine.
Forgetfulness thick as salt in the wave
you swell
And, swelling, tell
All that once, first told, was fresh:
Your tale, sea salt, flesh
All these first-time worlds will save.
Your arrival roars with peace.
Whatever craves rebirth
Under the moon or in heaven's surf
Will, in your unfolding cease,
And in ceasing, start again,
Beyond all reach of time, for pain.

Crimson Bird

Feet that tear at granite rocks
Of life's uneven shoals...
Tearing feet shed tears of blood
And, shedding, blood with the salt flood
Mixes.
Yet so vast are your own waters,
Your teeming salt solution,
That in them my blood's mere dilution.

Nameless in that unmeasured flow,
Such blood is what you'll never know.

While wild and sharp and fuming and ablaze
This crimson, overflowing bird of mine soars away.

Invitation

So let us be off to the depths of the sea
to hurry through saltworks
fetch shells

and make love
backs to dunes
and dive down the blue there
there to swim until spent

Come let us be off to the depths of the sea
and we'll swim until spent
down and down and down and down
wave-heaved and dolphin - hastened
Celebrants of the jungles of the floor of the sea

Come let us take off for the depths of the sea
we'll whirl there, we'll chant
till love, love's alone left to do

Come let me escort you to the depths of the sea
Extend me your hand
And my dream does the rest