Tuesday poem #517 : Réka Nyitrai : I asked the Night to breathe into my mouth

 

 

Last night I dreamt that a swan was sucking jade-dew from my fingers. With eyes wide open I saw thousands of little deaths, pooling. For a moment I thought that the warm breeze made by the swan’s wings would dry out the meadow's loneliness. Yet, once again I was proved wrong. When I woke the candles of will were no longer burning and the blessing bowls lay shattered on the floor.

Réka Nyitrai is a Romanian-Hungarian poet who discovered her poetic voice at forty-one, mainly through Japanese short forms, but particularly haiku. Her debut haiku collection While Dreaming Your Dreams won the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2020. Following this, she began to write both prose and lineated poems. She writes in English, her third language.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan