Periplum #12: Tito Andres Ramos

I first met Tito Andres Ramos during the 2005-2006 school year when he was an exchange student from Santa Cruz, Bolivia studying at School of the Arts, in Rochester NY where I taught creative writing. Already proficient in English, Tito signed up for my senior poetry class. It was the unit on haiku that really caught Tito’s attention.

In his own words Tito says:

“It was at School of the Arts that my haiku journey began. Once introduced to haiku I felt like I just had to write. I felt creativity inside of me and haiku was the way I could let it out. Once I started writing haiku I couldn’t stop.

For me, haiku is a way of seeing things; it is little sparkles of life in the small and daily things that we often miss. Haiku are small drops of love from God. Haiku is life itself; it is the tiny beat in daily things.

These days haiku is like a little room of peace in my busy day. When I go there it feels just right.”

Tito returned to Santa Cruz, Bolivia in the summer of 2006. Today, at twenty-one years of age he is studying business management and works for a marketing company. Please take a moment to enjoy this selection of haiku written by Tito. Tito composes his haiku in English and then translates into Spanish.

birthday rain
little drops zigzag
down my window

lluvia de cumpleanos
pequenas goats
zigzaggueando en la ventana

open grave
the mud sticks
to my boots

hojas muertas
bajo la nieve
luna de invierno

winter night
a blurry moon
illuminates the clouds

noche de invierno
la luna
ilumina las nubes

fallen leaves
a warm afternoon
in old Hiroshima

hojas caidas
una calida tarde
en la vieja Hiroshima

summer sunset
my sand castle
crumbling

atardecer de verano
mi castillo de arena
despedazandose

a wave
erases my footprints
summer sunset

una ola
borra mis huellas
atardecer de verano

sunny winter day
my packed suitcase
under the bed

dia soleado de invierno
mi maleta empacada
bojo mi cama

cold morning
her wedding ring
forgotten on my table

manana fria
su anillo de bodas
olvidado en mi mesa

rainy morning
the first light
covered by clouds

manana lluviosa
la prima luz
cubierto por nubes

cold morning
her body heat
on my empty bed

manana fria
su calor corporal
en mi cama vacia

winter moon
two pair of footprints
toward the sea

noche de invierno
dos pares de huellas
se dirijen al mar

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• Periplum: Introduction
• Periplum #1: Keiji Minato
• Periplum #2: Petar Tchouhov
• Periplum #3: Masahiro Koike
• Periplum #4: Fay Aoyagi
• Periplum #5: Jean-Pierre Colleu
• Periplum #6: Casimiro de Brito
• Periplum #7: Saša Važić
• Periplum #8: Ami Tanaka
• Periplum #9: Chie Aiko
• Periplum #10: Slavko Sedlar
• Periplum #11: Umberto Senegal