Eight years now and counting
but only yesterday the phone rang
I heard your voice as close
as your breath on my skin
telling me you loved me
and your leaving at anytime
would always have been too soon
© January 17, 2015
Renee Espriu
Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself
My mother left on another journey no one could take with her, eight years ago today and my missing her is always on the surface of every day of the journey I take for myself.
The heavens spill star dust
into vastness of universe
like glitter catching moon rays
gathered in pools that play
amongst sprites,fairies and such
You watched the stars & moon
a blanket beneath on the grass
in wonder constellations bright
peering deeply into the night
they left you all too soon
The sun use to warm your skin
you bathed in its’ healing rays
the memory masked a wolf in guise
walked with you no more to fly
friend of the stars, speaker to wind
© January 2016
Renee Espriu
My oldest daughter has Lupus, as I might have mentioned prior on this site. When she was a little girl she use to love to take a blanket and go with her friend to soak up the rays of the sun. Later, after she was diagnosed, she found she was allergic to the sun. I began to see her taking her blanket at night and going outside to the front yard. I asked what she was doing and she merely said, “I’m going to watch the stars”. She has adjusted to life and amazes me in the process.
Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself
Humanity, family, individuals, you & me
all connected by a universal family tree
black and white photo of a married couple
telling me a story of heritage and love
Migrated to Mexico,then on to freedom
real or imagined, a family in my homeland
their names Fabian and Julia Naegelin
met in a far away providence Alsace Lorraine
They will never see what the world is now
a world always replanted in fields fallow
with lives lost justified on shifting ideals
none of which is tangible, none of which is real
The horrors of war, of misguided youth
taking lives of those whom they should sleuth
of their histories that brought them close
that they really know each others’ shores
Humanity, family, individuals, you & me
all connected by a universal family tree
black and white photo of a married couple
telling me a story of heritage and love
© December 2015
Renee Espriu
The image below is a restaurant in Lyon, France but could be a restaurant anywhere in the world. Recently there were lives lost in France for ideals that are, tragically, only that…ideals. It is important to have ideals but they should not be taken to the extreme causing what is really important to be lost to us all.The reality of people’s lives lost and how really, we are all connected to each other in a genetically complex puzzle that will never be fully known, and that those genetics means we are all connected intrinsically to one another gave rise to this prose. My heart goes out to all those whose families are touched by this and many other real events that happen in our lives as life continues to move forward.
Image Taken From Morgue File
Blue over stuffed sofas
surround a braided rug
one of few things familiar
in my childhood home
where my seed was sown
The spinet piano sets still
piled now with books & boxes
I played now silent keys
in my childhood home
where my seed was sown
A framed photo watchful eyes
mother oversees this room
her beauty & youth smiling
a house she made come true
in my childhood home
where my seed was sown
© November 2015
Renee Espriu
Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself
A statue of the Virgin Mary
a reminder of what was
a garden full of roses
flowering bushes, of life
Now sparse of vegetation
of drought and neglect
a few tattered roses, hibiscus
all that is now left
The grass spreads out scraggly
tentacles filling bare ground
around rubber trees, cacti
crows cawing the only sound
Abandoned cobwebs clinging
to legs beneath the table
of which an umbrella covers
once sat by a pool now fable
The gray clouds float high
always threatening rain
a landscape a reminder
of which none has but feign
Sitting quiet a breeze blowing
dogs barking on close by
a hummingbird touches hibiscus
days were kinder & I sigh
© November 2015
Renee Espriu
Every time I visit my home of birth things look a little differently than before…or maybe it is just the details that keep coming through. Whatever the reason California will always be home.
Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself
Speak to me of oceans deep
of harbors safely keeping me
safe within rocky shores
crashing waves reaching more
of what I yearn to be and so
speak to me of oceans deep
Speak to me of waterfalls high
emptying into pools that sigh
touching swift my plaintive soul
crying out to search and more
of what I yearn to be and so
speak to me of waterfalls high
Speak to me of birthing waters
releasing life on which I falter
a gift her soul touching on mine
my inkwell ready to pen her lines
her life connects to me and so
speak to me of birthing waters
© November 2015
Renee Espriu
Welcome To My World of Strong Women Karlynn Elize Renee
Photo © Misha Cruz AKA Karlynn’s Nana and My Daughter
The rain comes down
amassing large drops
from the leafy trees
branches an umbrella
above me hovering
The rain comes trailing
rivulets against asphalt
like black swirling
satin ribbons rushing
forth in the darkness
The tree frogs sing
their frog song chorus
penetrating the night
slicing through like
hot candle wax flowing
The rain comes still
as the tree frog sings
as we wait for another
generation to arrive
another life in the world
© October 2015
Renee Espriu
Image Taken From Morgue File
the future
a time for
reminiscing
the past
remaining
the same
the present
a bridge
in between
© September 2015
Renee Espriu
the darkness of the night enfolds you
trying to hide you in its’ shadows
as i see you there within its’ curtain
answering my call to come to me
covering me soft with angel’s wings
the nights wore on and you were there
calling you in a time of urgency
the night a cover with moonbeam light
revealing the many layers of your love
transcending time’s clockwork hands
now yours’ tenderly holding onto mine
touching my fevered face and brow
distance becoming a grain of sand
the night your warm embrace
© August 2015
Renee Espriu
During the many weeks of being ill and feeling as though I were alone I believed that my mother was there with me. Odd though it may seem death is not really a separation from those we love.
Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized 
sitting here at the computer
heat radiating off my skin
like waves off asphalt street
thinking about my luck
my daughter says it’s
on the upswing…and really
what does that word mean
not a gambler this one
at least not ‘black jack’
or casino ‘slot machines’
have never won anything
i remember hiking years gone
‘tail end charley’ was me
stopping to catch my breath
in the hot afternoon sun
everything around me enchanting
from tiny lizards, chipmunks
to pebbles in a swift stream
bad lungs…i thought…meaning
to catch up but never could
took in the scenery instead
would reach the top eventually
my heart works better now
with new hardware installed
lungs filling with air power-ful
is my luck on the upswing…really
what could it seem to mean
in the scheme of things
i’ve still never won anything
© July 2015
Renee Espriu
Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized
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