Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

As on a familiar journey

let your trembling spoon

bring broth to your lips,

and as you sip, eyes closed,

the moon splashes again

below your rolled-up pants

and she is laughing

from the shore,

her shoes in hand,

stepping, balancing towards you,

so far from town,

barely in the woods

where you would

gather her.

Alan Smith Soto is a resident of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts and a member of the Jamaica Pond Poets and the New England Poetry Club. He was born in San José, Costa Rica, and lived in Madrid for many years.  He is the author of three books of poems, Fragmentos de alcancía (Treasure Jar Fragments) (Cambridge: Asaltoalcielo editores, 1998), with support from the Spanish consulate in Boston, Libro del lago (Pond poems), (Madrid, Árdora Ediciones, 2014) and Hasta que no haya luna (Till the Moon is no More)  (Madrid, Huerga y Fierro Editores, 2021). His poetry has been anthologized in Poetas sin fronteras (Madrid: Verbum, 2000) and Sabia savia (Segovia:  Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, 2006).  His translation of Robert Creeley’s Life and Death (Vida y muerte) was published in 2000 (Madrid: Árdora Ediciones). Smith Soto has translated and edited a special issue of the International Poetry Review (Spring, 2006: 9-75):  Spain’s Poetry of Conscience. In March and April, 2017, he directed and acted in Tres episodios y un incendio, a dramatic poetry performance, which he wrote with Pilar González España.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx