Contemporary World Literature A Poem from Peru
By Ramina Herrera Arteaga
Ramina Herrera Arteaga, born in Luya, Amazonas, Peru in 1979, is a Business Administrator by profession. She graduated from the National University of Trujillo – UNT. She received an honorable mention in the 2002 UNT Flower Tales. Her poetry “Memories of Unborn” was published online by the magazine “Voices” of Spain. In 2006 it was included in the anthology “Caminos de Poesía” (Editorial Fund of the Provincial Municipality of Cajamarca. ”In 2007 it published the Poemario“ Nocturna Soledad y otros Poemas ”(Katequil Editores). Currently finishing the layout of the second edition (digital) of “Nocturna Soledad y otros Poemas”, culminating in the poems “WRITINGS OF THE LUNA WOMAN” and “LUYA, PEDACITO DE CIELO”; also promoting a group OLEOS Y VERSOS -PERU that brings together poets and visual artists to join to a larger Latin American group called JUNTOS POR LAS LETRAS, headquartered in Argentina; participates in the Global Poet and Poetry group and is an active member of the board of directors and editorial board; She has been awarded many prestigious recognition for her writing.
The acclaimed and well-known Peruvian poet William Guillén Padilla writes about her poetry: “We are proud of his maturity and perseverance, for her mastery of language, for the topics covered and for her manifest lucidity. Ramina Herrera Arteaga emerges with singular writing, to be registered, by its own merit, in the book of remarkable Peruvian poetry.”
PLEASE OF LOVE
It is an act of love
And even more respect
With myself
Write what my spirit dictates
Not what people expect
I listen to every woman who owns my soul
One of them, today decided to speak
She dictates to my fingers
My fingers only write
Automatic, silent
And they sing to life
To love, to passion
They celebrate living nature,
As also today they want to express the cries
Cries of children begging for the lives of their parents,
Soldiers afraid of not returning home,
Fighting wars that are not his
They are just cannon fodder of major interest,
The hungry child shouts in his voice
And mommy has no money to buy bread,
Scream in mother’s voice
Who does not know what to do
Scream in the voice of the young
They have no choice but to choose the easy way
Because you have to eat,
Because there is family to support
And the country is in total anarchy,
Scream in the voice of those who feel discrimination
By race, color, religion,
Human stupidity
That is leading us to ruin!
To do
Big question…
I will change, you must change,
It’s time to change everyone,
Let the creator’s light
Whatever name you invoke
Illuminate our interior,
Let love shine in its greatest amplitude
And we will be a mirror of the world we want,
Today we only see disorder, sadness, pain, death,
Because that is in our heart,
It is time to wake up
To heal
And heal the planet
Let’s put aside our selfishness,
Our particular way of believing ourselves better,
And maybe … maybe … we still have hope
That we do not self-eliminate as a species … as a race…
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