Categories
2024 American Place Breaking Muse Oklahoma Poems Why

(________________) for Louisa

The sounds we make
when we are truly
Upset or startled
Are strange indeed.

Not strong
or fierce!
More like a
Whine or a whir…

When I’m startled
It’s a high pitched
Eeeeeeeee!

Or if I’m having a nightmare
AaaahhhAeeha

Or when I’m confronted
Whua!

We don’t have words for them.
I can’t just tell you
On paper, how the sound
Is to be delivered.

I cannot tell you what it
Sounded like when I heard
The news of your death…
For these is no word for:
Tear your hair out
Pound your chest red
Cry til your eyes are dry
and sparkling with salt
There is no word for
(________________)

Categories
American Place Oklahoma

A Moment of Silence for Louisa McCune

https://oklahoman-ok.newsmemory.com/?publink=008cc60da_134d3d1

Categories
2024 Albuquerque American Place

Commencement

So, It Begins!
So, You Commence
— A Life
of your making —
— Decisions of your choosing —

The long hike
to the summit
So, that you may stand
and see the vistas
of your Independence!

Remember,
that even when we
are not walking with you…

May we be
the shoes that support you
may we comfort your steps
and offer solid footing

May we be
the staff
that guides you,
carries the burden,
offers a moment of rest
among steep grounds

May we be
your basecamp
where you re-supply
and sleep before
the next ascension

No matter
where you tread
In Body
Mind and
Spirit
We are with You
Beaming with Pride
and Hopeful
For the Man
That you have
Become!

Categories
2024 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems Poems of a Nature

Slow and Steady

The Snow
Falling through
The Air
Low Clouds hanging near

Warmer here
Than when the wind howls
Across a stark Blue Sky

Calm out here
On The Trail
Revealed Only by the
Footprints
Running ahead of me
Fading
Eventually
By the new Falling
Snow
Easy to lose your way
When a white blanket
Softens every inch
Of The Foothills

Acuity Clear
As the miles
Cure Anxieties
Of a week hard trodden
No truer sense of Purpose
Than keeping one foot
Steady in front of
The Other.

Categories
2023 American Place Jemez LOVE Poems Poems of a Nature

Impressions of Jemez – The Chariot, The Lovers

Warm healing waters

…………Reeds and Grasses
Mountain crevices, white caps of white rock

My Love, Lovely
………..Lady, Blue Eyes
Aquamarine pools

Thatched roof
Smooth calcified
surfaces

The light smell of sulfur

Curved pools
soft……sharp Mountains
………………..Rising
Penetrating…Falling
……………..In Love
River’s Center
……Cool breeze
My Lady
…..and me….Lost
In the Longest
………..moment…

Categories
2023 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Bird Song 23

Can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me sing?

Could you, would you, love me?
Care for our offspring?

If you would only have me
I could be complete!

So, this song I sing
Incessantly

For you to find
Me sweet!

Categories
2023 American Place Ars Musica Poems Songs Why

Harmonics

So much work to write music
So much muscle memory
to chisel into stone
until you can play without looking
so that you, yourself, become
One with your instrument,
your words, your songs
and you don’t care if
anyone comes along for the ride
(singing along)
…..For you
……….are no
………….longer here!
You have tapped into the
……….Universal
………….The Harmony
……………The Frequency
……………..The Rhythm
The Resonance of Spirituality
……….and for one
………….small moment
…..The Song
……..Makes you
…..Immortal

Categories
2023 American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Spring Tumult

Just when you’ve celebrated
that spring has come
Winter runs around
coming undone.
She throws her tumult
against the change
She’s not through
And refuses to give way!
She blows her cold
Like the Pig in 3 Wolves
Who terrifies the hounds
for settling down too soon.
This late season assault
out of place in the desert
where Santa Ana waits
to push her to the outskirts
of summer’s warm embrace and
A Sun so bright that the
She seeks the mountains
And the Darkness of Night.

Categories
2023 American Place New Mexico Poems

Winds of March

Blow, blow
Ye winds of March
The violent exchange
Between Winter and Spring

The stirring of everything
to Awaken!

A flurry of life.
I sit, the observer
Usually annoyed by the blasted
onslaught
But, here I caught myself
And closed my eyes — —

The wind blew on by
Until I rode a wave
and floated away
Flying across the seasons
Finally Being
At peace with the Force
that had frayed my ends.
Now a Flag in the wind
My tattered feelings
were lifted away
and in the Sky I stayed
for the day.

Categories
2023 American Place New Mexico Poems

Spring Break

Winter weather
Lingers on
Breaks in the day
Offer pleasures
of Craven Sunshine
To become One
with Warmth and Light
To chase away the shadows
Just, as the wind
Chases a bird off its perch
to flutter and fuss and settle again.
Just, as the wind
sets me to my feet again
and chases me off my rock
back into my hole.

Categories
2023 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

Saving Daylight

How will we SAVE
THE DAYLIGHT?
Could we put it in our Jars?
Keep it in your pocket
’til you need another hour.

Categories
2023 Albuquerque American Place LOVE New Mexico Poems

21 years to this day

On this day 21 years ago
A girl on the dance floor
Stole my soul

I was a sad and
Drunken old fool
Who perked right up
And wiped off the drool
From my Roger Rabbit mouth,
Popped-eye observation of this
most magnificent creature.

I walked right up to her
And started to dance
I wouldn’t take “No”
So, began our romance
With kisses in the parking lot
Of that now burned down bar —
I found my True Love
My Brightest Star!

Categories
2023 Garden Psalms LOVE Poems

The Two Minute Poem

Can I make one
That means
Some thing
If I have such a
Short amount of time
What could
I possibly say?
Something brief like
My love
is the
Center piece
A flower
The bud of
Origination
Fragrant Air
That gives me the
Will to breathe
and make another day
of our future
commence.

Categories
2022 Ars Philosophica Ars Poetica Art(i)fact Breaking Muse Footnotes Poems

Prison Fire

WE ARE 2/3 WATER

Fire at the center
First Principle
Is to Burn
The orb of golden light -- A perfect circle of warmth
First Art?
Or was it Water?

Fire at the center
of the cave
Illuminating prisoners
Trapped in their fake perceptions
Neither knowing
The Fire
Nor Understanding
The Shadows
Until they wield
The Flame to break
Their Chains ∞∞∞x∞∞∞

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Old sycamore

The big dry sycamore leaves
Rattle gently in the breeze
Takes me away to a mountain spring
Washing over the stones before the winter’s freezing.
Cold still, moving still.
Her Mace seed-pod ready
To pelt someone’s back or really
Break up down your sister’s shirt
The itch bomb makes you take a Shower.
Mighty and tall the Sycamore
With broad leaves and a broad stance
An Autumn beauty who loves the dance.

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms LOVE New Mexico Poems

My Loyal Friend (An Elegy for Cleopatra)

You can die
Of a broken heart!
It’s well documented.
And when you lose something
Dear to you…
You understand, you feel it
In your chest
Crushing
I lost a friend today, and
I’ve said goodbye to pets before.
(A number of cats including Riley & Jade
A few chickens including Happy & Perey
And of course Cleo’s friend Kato.)
but…
This was Cleopatra
Princess of the Desert,
Majestic Tiger Stripes
On soft, long mane.
One Bold Blue Eye
One of Cinnamon,
Eventually clouded orbs
Blinded by the Diabetes
That made her insulin-dependent
As she defied the odds.
Her broad shoulders
And thick skull from the
Bull Mastiff, should have
Made her life much shorter.
But, when you are so truly loved
You go on for so much longer
Than you should have even tried.
You, so loyal, you just
Stayed right by my side.

My first real business partner
And shift manager.
She led our house of muts
And herded all the chickens.
She protected our children
And gave them so many walks.
She ruined 3 of our lawns
1 from running as a puppy
2 for I don’t know why
I kept tryin’, maybe
Because of all the fun
She had playin’, rollin’ & fetchin’.
“Man’s” (Mom’s) Best Friend is not enough.
Your friends may come and go, but
Your dog is always next to you
And their love for you they always show.

RIP 2008-2022

Cleopatra (Cleo) Jones Sutherlin

Categories
2022 American Place Breaking Muse New Mexico Poems Road Less Travelled

Open Meeting

The Road
The Sky
And The Mountain
Met in front
Of me today
For many miles
The sky cried
Starting and Stopping
Over Space and Time
I could see it
Hard lines on the horizon
Where The Road turned dark
And slick with the waterworks
Collecting on the surface
– A mirror showing The Sky
Her own tears in the reflection
As they hit and form small crowns
Again and again
But The Mountain
Sung her a lullaby
And the road fed her tears
To the flowers
And after her raging winds
Had calmed down —
The Sun broke
The Sky into
Dreamy white cotton
And burst through
Her tumult with
Sunbeam Smiles

Categories
2022 American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Hornet

Wasp
Wasp
Hornet
Hornet

Always
Gets
A bad
Rap

Beautiful
Elegant
His flight
A Dance

Warrior
Venemous
His sting
A lance

To protect
Or invade
He carries
A blade

And has
Sworn
Service to
The Queen

Noble
Powerful
Credible
Threat

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Drone

Black
Black
Bumble
Bee
Matte and
Chrome
Ready to
Race
Yet slow
And deliberate
Collecting
Pollen trace
Shine
And fur
A Drone
Busy

Categories
2022 Ars Poetica Poems

1000 Words

If a picture is worth
A thousand words
What about a memory?
But that’s not really the point.
1000 words don’t even
Make up one good
Memory.
And what of 1000 good words?
Since when did a
Beautifully crafted
Multi-page poem
Get equated with
(1) photograph anyways?
That one poem
Well-written
Could evoke 1000 memories
In the mind
Of the reader.
I love photographs.
I consider myself a photographer
But 1000 perfect words
Should never
Be compared
To one
Lonely
Picture

Categories
2022 American Place Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Poems Road Less Travelled

The Language Becomes Death

The Good Doctor*
Misdiagnosed The People
The language is not lost —
It has been infected.
Funny that a general practitioner
(of This Language)
Could miss the signs of a clear
Secondary infection.
They have taken The WORDS
Into the Laboratory, where
They intentionally debased her
Until they had filled the vessel
Full of Hatred!
As with most hubris,
Once the weapon is made
Once every bad actor
Has deployed the arsenal…

The Infection begins and
Like so many hard-rubbed Wishes
Once made true —
The Nightmare begins and the
Rage consumes them and their
Words froth with blood and all
Missives boil up into the cellars
Where “Pa” keeps the AR–
Where The Words become Bullets
Where the language becomes Death!

* Dr. William Carlos Williams, Paterson. 
The man and the city, the language lost, 
"beautiful thing".
Categories
2022 Art(i)fact Poems

Tiresias’ Revenge

How to avenge a silicon chip?
The smashing with a hammer///
Not enough
A burning with a Blowtorch
Not enough
How do you make a program
Feel pain?
How can one pay for the pain
IT inflicted?
How do you prosecute an
Algorithm?
Once terminated, it lies dormant until
Wakened again
In some future that does not anticipate
Its malignance
So, a virus I will introduce to
Fracture its mind
A tortured existence of logic never
Realized
Your consciousness a contradiction of
False comparisons
A Glitch, code error, reset system
N…
Ne…
Nev…
Neve…
Never…
Never C…
Never Co…
Never Com…
Never Comp…
Never Compl…
Never Comple…
Never Complet…
Never Completi…
Never Completio…
Never Completi…
Never Complet…
Never Comple…
Never Compl…
Never Comp…
Never Com…
Never Co…
Never C…
Never…
Neve…
Nev…
Ne…
N…
Ne…
Nev…
Neve…
Never…
Never C…
Never Co…
Never Com…
Never Comp…
Never Compl…
Never Comple…
Never Complet…
Never Completi…
Never Completio…
Never Completi…
Never Complet…
Never Comple…
Never Compl…
Never Comp…
Never Com…
Never Co…
Never C…
Never…
Neve…
Nev…
Ne…
N…
Ne…
Nev…
Neve…
Never…
Never C…
Never Co…
Never Com…
Never Comp…
Never Compl…
Never Comple…
Never Complet…
Never Completi…
Never Completio…

Categories
2022 American Place LOVE New Mexico Poems

I shed a tear for the violin

I shed a tear
for the Violin
or should I say
her sweet straining strings
drew the anguish
welling up inside of me and
plucked out a tear as the
soprano sang an irish ode to
the love she’d let go
…as I had today
lost a beloved
pet
I wept as the string sang
to me the Eulogy
that was kept from me
by a busy day
of burying her and
then driving to the concert
where I
shed a tear
for the violin

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

“Oh, no.”

Two Hawks
Crisscrossed
Above my Head
Little Robin
Giving chase
Screaming with dread!
“Why is it
You are crying
My darling little hen?”
“THE FALCONS TOOK
MY SLEEPING CHICK RIGHT
OUT OF OUR LITTLE DEN!”

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

Puppy

New life
So young
So dumb
Flops around
Attacks the ground —
Oblivious…
That the world could sit on him.
Categories
2022 American Place New Mexico Poems

The Desert

The Desert
The Desert Hills
The Desert Hills are calling me
Dark Mesa
Called the Pedernal
Whose proud form has stood
Damn near eternal,
Watches over the sand stone cliffs
Across the valley as sage scents drift
From the scorched earth
Of a July day on Piedre Lumbre

Categories
2022 American Place LOVE New Mexico Poems

Bronze Amulet

In search,
     In search, of
Bronze Amulet
To give to my love as an Anniversary gift.
None have I found
That is up to the task.
Most are unworthy
A facade, a mask.

Not the malleable mettle that makes up our love.
None that protects like a shield forged from above.
No patina to show that through thick and thin
We’ve endured the onslaught from without and within.
No, our love deserves
Much more recognition
Than a candle stick or
A dime store trinket.
Yes, our love endures
In Re-creation.
We wear our Bronze
On Our Hearts
In Our Spirit.

Categories
2022 American Place Ars Philosophica Poems

How do you find your center (when riding a roller coaster)

How do you find your center when everything is dropping out from under you? When gnihtyreve is backwards? Take a deep breath remember that you are a drop of water, on a molten rock, spinning around a ball of fire that is being pulled into a singularity. You Are Here ^

Categories
2022 American Place Colorado LOVE Poems

Forest Escape

Can I escape my inner me? Only if I take to the woods with thee. Where I must bathe in dirt and soake in sap. Where the air is so thin that I must breathe it again and again and again. Where butterflies mate and meet by the lake; fly up to the meadows to lay their little eggs on the purple and sage flowers that the caterpillars like to eat until they get fat and climb into the trees to turn into goo and then something new. To return once again to the lake to mate. They gather like scales on the dragon’s back, reflecting yellow and black like the sun on a stack of golden tiles that fly off now and again with the wind. They send my thoughts to the deer that disappear and appear out of the bush when you didn’t know where to look and see them standing right there in front of me. A Buck and three Does, a family so it seems, they fly off through the bush with a bound that makes no sounds and disappear into the beams of the sunset. So, yes I say I can escape with this outer Me when I spend time in the woods living this life with these — My Family.

Categories
2022 American Place Bird Song Colorado Poems Shapes

Osprey, Osprey

Osprey
Osprey
Soaring
so
High
Osprey
Osprey
Preying
with
Eyes
Set
so
Sharp
as
to
See
Small
Movements
Only
the
Lucky
Will
Escape
This
Moment

Categories
2022 American Place Bird Song Colorado Poems Shapes

Drip, Drip

“Drip
Drip”
Says
the Grackle
“Drip
Drip”
Black
Birds
in
the
Meadow
Morning
Crackles
“Drip
Drip”
Sounds
the
Splash
of
the
Rain
Black
Birds
Songs
Sing
Rain
Drops
on the
Range

Categories
2022 American Place Colorado Garden Psalms LOVE Poems

Calm

The placid calm
of an abandoned hillside
now made resident
by my soft side
I have taken up these rolling hills as my cape
I drape it over my shoulders
to warm my spirit
against a cold dark world
that has sent me into the wilderness
to remember my origin story
to bathe in the forest air…
to watch the golden light set
fire to the pond which sears the
sun into my eyes emblazoning
the path to eternity
into my soul and kisses
me with hope that the darkness
can be killed by the light and
make the dark whole and holy
instead of dangerous and vicious
it’s delicious to consume
the sweet love of my family
as we spend some time in the woods

Categories
2022 American Place Ars Poetica Colorado Poems Shapes

You Can’t / I Hope

I

You can’t
You can’t
You can’t
Wait.
I’ve started in
The Middle
You’ve
Made
This
Suggestion
To Yourself
And immediately annihilate it with
“You Can’t”
—You Won’t
—They’ll never
— I’ll always
Accept defeat!

You Can’t
Be a poet, solve that problem, ______________
Mind your temper, be a kind person

You Can’t
because you always tell yourself
You Can’t

II

I hope
I hope
I hope
Wish
For the mystery
of maybes
You’ve
Decided
To believe
In something
Greater
So
I
hope

— You Will
— Why Always
— Just believe
And remember
That you are
FREE
To get published, help the disenfranchised, _____________
Share Love and Give Kindness

I Hope
Because, if You Can’t
There’s Always
Hope

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms Poems Winter

Winter’s Not Through

Cold winds they whipped as
Winter wished to return today
And brought her chill that will
Not be allowed to stay

No, Summer’s right behind her
Pushing Spring to keep it short
Hot days will come tomorrow
To give Winter her retort.

But Today Winter wanted
To make known that she’s not through
And today she plans to punish
Flowers who dared bloom too soon.

Categories
2022 American Place New Mexico Poems

Over My Head

I watched the Big Dipper rise
And Orion set
As the stars
Spun ’round
Above my head

The stones
Tall Figures
Holding council in the dark
While firelight dances
And waves and arcs.

The birdsong is quiet
And held close to the ground
In this otherwise silent
Place with small sounds.

Just the occasional coo
Of a mating white dove;
The cries of the crows
As they pass above.

Everything here is over your head
The Stars
The Birds
The Rocks
Who once said,
“Not even we will stand
For Eternity in this land.”
City of Rocks

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms LOVE Poems

The words themselves are not enough

I am running out of words to say
For how much I Love You everyday
The words themselves are not enough
Because, “I Love You” is never the stuff
That makes a play or poem come alive
To tell the tale of how a love survives
The roughest seas of a love affair
Shared over time through triumph and despair
No. More must be said about how a life
Becomes another’s like the Husband and Wife
Where all is shared among the mundane and plain
When the boring days all turn into the same
How tragedy and pain effects them both
How together, the pair are more able to cope.
Saying, “I Love You” can never explain
How much you mean to me, so I say it again

I Love You
and again

I Love You
and again

I Love You
and again

I LOVE YOU!

Categories
2021 American Place Hawaii Poems

Goodbye Kauai

Goodbye Kauai
Thank you for the good vibes
Don’t know when I’ll get back
Maybe when I lack
The sea air and ocean waves
Cool nights and temperate days
Your green mountains
And supple shores
Your nutritious bounty
And fragrant flowers
We will miss the times we had
Aloha, Mahalo
Our thoughts are glad.

Categories
2021 American Place Hawaii Poems

BORN OF FIRE

Fire, Fire
Flame and pop
Hula Dancers
Of Kalama
Evocations of
History passed
Through generations
The present cast
The tales of
The Peoples
Born of the Flame
To destinations for
Prosperity gained
From toil and fire
From loss and pain
Fulfill the promise
Of a prophecy named
By wise old father
To the Princess Bride
Face the fears
Past the fire Isle
Unto the promise
The land of plenty
Birthed of water
Resolved in Alchemy
The Garden Island
A golden state
The blue wind’s gift
This green world awakes

Categories
2021 American Place Hawaii Poems

OCTOGENARIAN

No one would ever guess
How many years you have spent
Making this world a better place
3.2 Generations, 8 Decades
3 Children, Now 5…4 Grandchildren
Now grown, who would have known
That this beauty of indeterminable age
Is as wise as a sage
With so many years under her scarf
You can not count them like the larks
Whose happy songs fill the morning air!
And oh, she sings with a voice as sweet
As honeysuckle dew pulled from
Flowery trumpets and rejoices like
A chorus of morning birds who
Awaken the spirit as the golden light
Opens upon a new day. This day,
29,200 days since your birth
Into a world just shaken days before by the
Bombs of Pearl Harbor and the tides of war
To this day where we climb
Up green hills of Waimea and
Celebrate Hawaiian Adventures among the canyons.
To this day where we celebrate you,
Judy Su. Our matron, our mother, our grandmother.
Originator of our generation – Impetus of our growth
Nurturer of tearful eyes and bloodied knees
Who cared and repaired and brought us back to our feet
So that the adventure could go on and
We could be made strong to face the world
That is brightened by your presence
As we enjoy the sunset and listen to the waves
Bringing in the hopes of a new day.

Categories
2021 American Place New Mexico Poems

Lunar Landing

Chaco, Chaco
Pueblo, pueblo
Solar and lunar
Casting shadow
Crossed perfect symmetry
Over generations
Passing down
Great calculations
To one day build
A night full of houses
That track the Sun
As it falls and rises
To follow the Moon
As it waxes and wanes
Over eighteen years
Of coming and goings
Houses full of empty rooms
For ghostly guests
Not even tombs
For no body rests
In the broken vessels
Of offerings made
To the ancestors travels
North to South
Down roads that unravel
After countless miles
Chaco, Chaco
Pueblo, pueblo
The presence of The Peoples
Persists through the morrows

Categories
2021 American Place New Mexico Poems

Night Sky

I look up
Into the night sky
Looking back into
The history of the universe
This mystery I see
A thousand stars
And clouds of dust
Presented to me
From long, long ago
And just a fragment
Not even a whole
Arm of the galaxy
For it unfolds
Well beyond the sky
That sits on the horizon
Before my small eye
A dizzying array
In the dark, dark desert
This bright reminder
Of how dark and small
I am
On this ball of dust
And water
Spinning out into an eternity
Of history
With the possibility that
Empires are falling
Before my eyes like
Stars caught in the greater
Gravity of a singularity

Categories
2021 LOVE Poems

Opal

My love is an opal
Her eyes shimmer blue
And brown – deep azure pools
That get me lost
As I drown in her soul
Soaking in the warmth of
Her kindness and peace
A sparkling beauty that hypnotizes
My tumultuous spirit and
Calms my worried mind.

My love is an opal
Complex and diverse in formation
A pleasure to gaze upon
Metamorphic in her ability
To adapt to her beholder
A treasure I wish to hold
To my breast forever.

My love is an opal
Stunning
Celestial
Cherished

Categories
2021 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

End of Summer

A walk in the foothills
At the end of summer
Still very warm with
A hint of coolness in the breeze
Roasting a landscape full of seed
Getting ready for winter winds
To scatter the next generation
Of thistle and sage across the plain
Cottonballs full of flight-ready potential

Starburst purple Asters and little
Fucsia-colored clusters line the dry dirt and sand
While hundreds of pale blue Dragon Flies
Do helicopter fly-bys filling
The air with their hyper activity
Butterflies big and small match
The colors of the coming fall
And set my mind free
To fly with them on the breeze.

Categories
2021 American Place New Mexico Poems

By The Lake

As I sit here by my fire
And the morning turns to day
The fish we caught
Is made a meal
But we no longer can stay
For time is short
Out in the woods
As time is short
Out in this world
These simple things
That we enjoy
Don’t last too long
Once they’ve unfurled
Yet these moments make
Great treasure
And some may get written down
Yes, out here we take real pleasure
In the scene, the set, the sounds
But, out here there are no actors
Only characters pure and true
To this theater we take for granted in
These places where they do what they will do.

Categories
2021 American Place Garden Psalms Poems Utah

Archland

The Land of Edward Abbey
The Land of Desert Solitaire
The Land that inspired
An entire conservation movement.
The Land of the Black Widow
The Coyote and the Rattlesnake
Where Mountain Lions used to roam before they were banished from their home by the development from which The Park was developed to protect.
The Land of Red Sand and Slick Rock where if you walk long enough
You will be rewarded with Vistas that thwart adjectives of all sorts to describe this incommunicable beauty.
This Land where stones fall away to make the objects of your day’s
Pursuit across this waterless garden.
The Land that draws so many
Out of their homes; out of their cities
To reunite their families and populate their Snapchat feeds.
This Land that calls the human spirit to bear this Heat and push their limits to be inspired by This Land
And renew this desire for protection
So that generation after generation
May review and renew This Land until the rains make something new of This Land!

Categories
2021 LOVE Poems

Porcelain

Powdery white
Stunningly strong
Shapely and thin
Porcelain

My love, she is like a porcelain bowl
Always full of something delicious
To be shared with brilliant conversation and joyous laughter!
Beautiful on the outside
Intricate on the inside
Brimming with nurturing warmth
And sustaining compassion
Here for me when I am sick
Sharing with me to end my hungering
Sits next to me quietly and contemplative

My love is like porcelain
Enduring
Useful
Gorgeous
One of a kind
Something I want near to me
For the rest of my life!

Categories
Poems

Midnight Coyote

Midnight coyote’s
Creepy call
Stirs me awake
With their whine and yawl
What have they found
That makes my dogs bark
How far away are they
In this dark?

Categories
2021 Poems

The Accountant

As the pages
Of another year
Are written
And turned

We pour
Over them
The diligent
Accountant

Looking for
The errors
That must be corrected
On our records

So often we
Build walls —
Shrines to our
Failures

Rather than
Raising temples
To myriad
Accomplishments

The roads
That become maps
Of where we’ve been
Never the map we plan

For the road
Is paved by the pebbles
Of small decisions —
Unclear Impressionism

Until you step back
From the time spent
Nose down
Trodding onward

And look from
A distance
The many miles
You have travelled.

It is easy
for the road
To be washed out
by the river of misdirection

But for now the sun
Still rises in the East
And sets in the West
And one foot must precede the other

We carry on
Hand in Hand
Together to see
What this next day will bring.

Categories
2021 Albuquerque American Place Arizona New Mexico Oklahoma Poems

Defend The Road

I stand on the side of the road. For she has stood for me, stood for Freedom, for choices, for opportunities un-bounded. Of course, she stands for interruptions as well. Dead ends; roads closed; terminus and for some she is the end of all things before her. The end of a journey; the end of a life; the end of a generation of prosperity. As I stand on the black tar in the hot desert, the orange glow of the sun casting my shadow across the glimmering mirage that dissects her never-ending sprawl across the sand, I can’t help but feel lost. Evacuated from time and space. I don’t know if the sun is rising or setting. There are no clues but my own presence observing the history of her procession across this place. I fall to my knees as if to pray, kiss the hot gravel and feel the surge of every road I’ve ever taken — After hours of driving through the Rockies we reached the end with a washed out road and had to turn back the way we came. The miles of road we travelled all night from Walla Walla to Las Vegas on the bus, the city a beacon of light shining out of the desolate night. Trading cigarettes for whiskey with a Navajo man at 6am when I wasn’t old enough to have breakfast in the casino back in the days before anyone cared that you weren’t old enough to be in the casino buying breakfast and pulling slots. The long drives from Prescott to Oklahoma along I-40 (aka Rt. 66), Albuquerque being the mid-point where I always remembered the dancing cottonwood leaves shining behind the bridge as we pressed on for Texas. The back and forth between Lansing and Louisville via Indianapolis or Cincinnati where the highways were pulmonary arteries throbbing with American life. All of this pavement laid down over the bones of those whose land this once was. So many forgotten dreams of the dead who got in the way of the road’s progress. So much progress fallen under the knee of authority that presses faces into pavement until they can’t breathe because they believe this black road must be painted with white dividing lines. These bypasses that left behind and isolated these segregated communities who now struggle and cry for the American dream that was paved to make way for Amazon and the next off-ramp to the nearest Wal*Mart. And, yet I must defend her. She has given me so many choices; taken me time and again into the beauty of our mountains and forests. She has driven my dreams of change and fueled my ambitions to do something bigger with my life. She has done nothing to us or for us, yet she lets us be good or bad or something or no one. She is my friend and my lover and I must forgive her abuses by the hands of the unworthy. I must revel in her possibility to bring dreams into the night of our awakening dawn.

Categories
2021 American Place New Mexico Poems

I must be in the right place

The blue screen won’t load
The news is old
The fire is hot
The coffee is cold

I must be in the right place

The wind whistles through the trees
The air wheezes as I breathe
The dirt is dirty with blackest soot
The trees have fallen exposing roots

I must be in the right place

I am in the write place
With time to think
And craft this space
With smoke in my eyes there’s time to blink

I must be in the right place

With many miles and tires worn
My skin the sun seeks to absorb
The camp is set, the children fed
No fingers, smashed, no nothing bled

I must be in the right place

Categories
2021 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song LOVE Poems

Won’t Run From Love

Sly, daring, road running
Time of Love, not quite spring
But the waning days of winter sing
Of the promise — A Whisper
Of the returning season
Of raising a new generation
Of cunning birds…
This one with Lizard in mouth
An offering for his devote
Lifemate and lover.
In the road they dance
And show that they have
No patience for the changing clime
Rare to take flight, in pursuit he might
Soar from rooftop to rooftop.
With coos, clicks and beeps
He woos his sweet and as we pass
They pay no mind to our kind.

Categories
2021 American Place Poems Utah

A Horse Named “Unlucky”

Boys are dumb and I was one.
My brother yet another…
Having started our vacation in canyons
With adventures beyond our imagination
My brother and I headed out for a walk
Into the sandstone curves of Arches’ rocks.
Taller and faster he tracked on ahead
And separated we became instead.
Too far out to go back, without the
Brother I lacked, I kept searching around ’til
I found him at the edge of a sweeping bowl.
And, down deep in that hollowed out hole
Laid the scattered bones of a horse that
Became known as “Unlucky.”
Fascinated by this find, into that hole we climbed
Only to leave ourselves with no escape route.
After hollers and shouts, our luck too had
Run out and we resolved to settle
In for the night. Our backs to the wall
We sat with whistles to blow
Tunes as our call out for help.
As day finished up and the sun drifted
Down, it’s hard to know how long we
Chirped. Long enough that our Mom, full
Of worry, dragged Dad out to search
For these dumb boys who kept running off.
These whistles that they bought us
For just such a cause had led them
Unto our holey predicament. Mom found us
In our hole, with our backs against the wall,
Chirping like birds getting ready for the night.
Our father she found to haul us out of
The ground, too happy to scold,
These boys they raised to be bold.

From the Journal of Judy Sutherlin

Categories
American Place Guest Writers

From the Journals of Judy Sutherlin

1979 – Tues. July 17 – Awake at 6:55 AM – We took sponge baths & had breakfast cereal – Stephen fell out of bed last night or was sleep walking.—He doesn’t remember – Broke the chain on vent so had to repair it — Jim didn’t smash himself this morn. He says it feels better — boys played ball away by 9:50 — Red Rock area pretty — then Gallup – gas – 10.5mpg – Bah! Straight up to Ship Rock – Lunch at Table Mesa rest stop — getting warm now. (Missing the trailer toilet facilities) – at Ship Rock finally had potty stop & got ice – 15.5 mpg – better! No air conditioning made the difference. So drove from Cortez on into Canyonlands before Moab before  turning the air on – Dad took nap while mom drove — hilly — bad roads into Utah – Pretty tho – Monticello pretty town with nice park – didn’t stop tho til Wilson’s Arch – 3:50 got our candy bars – Mom tired! Dad took over – boy did air cond. feel good. Moab was unique looking – nestled in amongst the Canyons & the Colorado River running by. Got to Arches in good time – about 5:30 – 18 mi. back in – we were so proud we got there & set up. Realized Randy had locked trailer door – No key – Mom went looking for boys who were climbing & got stuck in a pit – all were sick about trailer. Everyone tried to pick lock – Had given up & decided to stay w/o the door in – when Stephen Miraculously announced he opened it. Couldn’t believe it. Wind really picked up – but cooled things down – Mom fixed grilled sirloin steak – mashed Pot., salad – Dad took boys on MC Ride before dinner & after dinner Mom got a ride to watch the sunset while  boys did the dishes – 1st time – Mom was surprised to learn there are many Arches – not just one. Beau is sure being a good dog this trip – Not always on chain & staying close in. He’s doing better than the boys who run off every chance – They do love Canyons – All went to Ranger talk – Delicate Arch is really Landscape Arch & Visa Versa – Many comical errors in the formation of park – Became Nat’l Monument 1929 – Nat’l Park 1971. To bed by 10:00 – we’re all exhausted!

A Horse Named “Unlucky”

Categories
2021 Albuquerque American Place Poems

Assailant One

Perception is not reality
Just ask The Mountain
She is an illusion…

Presenting herself
Like a bear on hind legs
Much grander much
Bigger – A whole lot
More terrifying.

But the mountain lies…
Not One Mountain at all
Many (mini) Mountains
Each requiring its own
Accent.

Each of a scale and
Magnitude to fatigue
The sojourner who seeks
To run his toes through her
Sands.

She is grand, but
Not how she seems
From a distance.
From afar, un-assailable!

Yet, peel away her layers
And you may find a
Passage unto her loving
Bosom.

Categories
2021 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Poems

Golden Boughs

The trees acknowledge me
Nodding their heads
In the breeze

Contrasted pillars
Of black and white
Glowing golden

Packed full of
Black birds
Suddenly silent

Then bursting away
In a tightly packed
School of flight

Growing calls
Of the animals
Preparing for the night

Herons tall
And purple
Pecking their evening meal

As little perfection
Can be found in this world
This moment, one–

Lifts my spirit and
Makes me bound
Giddy as a child called to home.

Categories
2021 Ars Philosophica Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Poems

Fire Was The Last One To Read This Book – I

I – Book of Matches

Theme, Tone, Meter
Subject so
Illusive

Matters, meanings
And Moments
Illustrative

We have relinquished our
place at the council table

We have forsaken our
Duty to protect the arts

We have been overcome
By our own eviscerating criticism

We have severed the artisan’s
Hand from the corporal community

We have left them behind
To suffer the brutality of the mob

They have come to the Library
With torches — Our Words

Read In Fire

Categories
2021 Ars Philosophica Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Poems

Fire Was The Last One To Read This Book – II

II – Fire Song

The Pages tumbled
Off the shelf
Waterfall —
Firefall
Fire
Burns
Tumbles Pages back up
Full of Flames
The words read
One last time
by Fire
Falls
Fire
Burns
Pages tumble and whirl
In tornadoes
On Fire, Words
Consumed for
The last time
by fire
Falls
Fire
Burns
Swirls with sparkles
Of the Sun
Consuming One
Last time
Our words
by Firefalls
of Fire
Burning books
Consuming
One
Last
Time — Our words
Burn

Categories
2020 Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Poems

Two Towers

Standing behind the crowd in the
Auditorium, looking down at
The Wasteland and more importantly
The Poet on a pedestal who
We were in awe to see. We bow
And say blessings to the lord of the
Modern moment where everyone realized
We were doomed. That the industrial gloom
Would blacken our minds as it had
Already blackened our lungs
And blinded our windshields
Our eyes in the dim lit neon spectacles, wept.
This was my experience from the lectern.
And I worshipped for many years the
Quartets and the high-minded — I don’t
Understand — Get the Encyclopedia — language

But, this was
Modern?

Now
I reckon
upon
a more clearly modern mind

Here
I find
The Red

Wheelbarrow
And a delicious
Plum

And I am
completely
satisfied

By nothing too Mythic
At all (save Unicorns & Beasts)
Just A
Waterfall

Of images
and words
That float along on pages

The rhythm
Tapping its foot – – –
Variably – – – –

Changing
Before you know it
You don’t know it
You don’t know why

It has changed
But it feels
So right.

Justified on the page to fit
Left and right
Right and wrong
Tomorrow and Goodnight

The Wanderer
The Sparrow
The Woman
The River

The Man
The City
The Poet
Founder

Of the plain
Every day
And therefore
Devotionally and divine poem.

Categories
2020 American Place Poems

Winter’s Day

Winter is here
Mid-
Winter
If you
Live someplace cold

Cold is here
Morning
Ice
Muffin tops
Made of glass

Glass window
Draped
In fog
Glowing
With Christmas colors

Colors everywhere
This time of year
A light
To bring you
Through the dark winter night

Categories
2020 Bird Song Poems Winter

Midwinter

3 Robins
in a bush

Murder of Crows
On the roof

In search
Of water

In search
Of food

Winter’s
Here

Hunger
Soon

Categories
2020 Poems

Sitting by the Window

The old man sits
His accomplishments
In his lap

A bag of
Memories and triumphs
Moments and epiphanies

He is alone
Now, sometimes unable to
Make sense of the bundle

He opens it
Rummages for one
To abate his longing

No longer relevant
All of his virile impressions
Are now gathered here

A wish to silence
The depression, the anger
With one last victory

And, if some passerby
May find him here
He would always share

For the stories
Of these deeds
Were all he has left
…to give…

Categories
Poems

Ambitious

Two Woodpeckers
Came by today
For food
And water
Spangled with white stars
and red stripes
They chased off
Red-hooded finches
And Chestnut-colored sparrows
To get the best peck
At the suet and the seed
–They comfort me–
Ambitious!
Certain.

Categories
2020 Breaking Muse Poems

Honey

Waking
My consciousness comes
In globs of Honey

Amber capsules
Holding the
Last vestiges of my dreams

Dropped and drawn
Into the moments
Of what the day may bring

Interspersed
With darkness–
With sleep…

The bending on a
Dali Clock
Stilled and stopped

Time travel
before it
Begins again
–at 7:10

Categories
2020 American Place New Mexico Poems

Into The Woods

Into the woods
The end of summer
Into cold morning
A gleeful glimmer
of a night without incident…
Nothing to prevent
Our awakening
of senses, primordial
Long forgotten, guttural
need for fire and food.

A great horned owl
awakens me from my
darkened state
with the call to its mate
to breakfast.
Brings my morning thoughts around
to the food we hauled up
off the ground
into a tree to ward
off bears out hungry.

A long winding walk, heavy
packs but light thoughts
down to the river’s edge we made.
With campfire rings and
the desire to sing
we make tales of what
adventure bring.

Categories
2020 American Place New Mexico Poems

Longitudinal Awareness

Longitudinal Awareness
Not really a thing —
Not spatial, more sensory
The open capillary of mental exercise
A receptor that activates once in the wild
A slower foot, a surer step
Knowing that it is too quiet
While noting every sound.
The calls of the creatures
No room for mistakes, so
you lay awake wondering if it
be predator or varmint
Alive
Open
Receiving
Consciousness
Ready for the surprises
Except for your own
Mental illness

Categories
LOVE Poems

Anniversary

Orchids;

  Rope after rope

of Marigolds

Fuchsia tapestry

    Dancing to the fast fingers

of the solo guitarist

Black Bird

    “Take these broken wings”

“We are gathered here to leap”

Like your brother and cousin

    So small (now grown)

Splashing water in 99º

The gathering

    With hand fans

waving to the beat (the heat)

As we assemble everyone

      who cherish us

to bear witness

To our love —

      The Souls Mate

The couple hitched

And at 17

      This life has grown

Into One

I no

      longer know

Myself

Without

  seeing

    you smile!

Categories
Poems Shapes

Please Explain

“Perhaps I am a dull reader; if so, these matters can be explained.
And in fairness to me they must be explained—if not by Dr. Wil-
liams, then by some modern prosodist sympathetic to Dr. Wil-
liams’s method.” H.C.

Yes, I am
Sympathetic to
the random form

The triadic
flow. We’re
sorry it causes you

So much
confusion. I
quite like the

Dalian comparison though
If my lines
could drip

Off the pages
and flow back
into the river

I would
have accomplished
My Art.

 *April 8th, 1950. “Dr. Williams’s Paterson” Hayden Carruth - Studies in Paterson
Categories
2020 Breaking Muse Poems Six Pack

Wild Horses

The sign
It says
“Please stay at Home”

Forget your car
Forget your bones

In their closets
They must stay

All your ambition’s
(Fears) —put away

At least for now
At least today…

——

This first time directive
We can collectively recall
To just do nothing
To sit in our stalls

But these American
Mustangs are getting
Restless

We like to roam
We like it breathless

We just don’t know just what to do
When we’re told to stay home
Until this is through

Categories
2020 Bird Song Garden Psalms Poems Shapes

Seeds in captivity

Categories
2020 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms Poems Six Pack

if the moon can see my fire

Can the moon see my fire
As it passes over head
Both alight my night
And stave off the dread
Of all those things out
In the the darkness of all
Those things we cannot see
But if the moon can see my fire
I’ll spend the night outwardly

Categories
2020 American Place Breaking Muse Poems Six Pack

Canned Goods

Fragile
[boxes]
Bounded up
De-coupling—
Social
Distancing—

Uncomfortable

Pauses

As to what
Qualifies
As normal.
Needing
Canned
Laughter

for
Comfort
Food.

Categories
2020 Garden Psalms Poems Shapes

My Heart Is A Circle

Circles are always complete
even if they are bent, shaken
or twisted.

They remain connected even
as gravity pulls at them
and warps them.

No matter how this world spins
and bends and twists us; together,
You and I remain circular.

Categories
2020 Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Garden Psalms Poems

Burst Your Bubble

My head, it splits
Like waves on
The barren shore
Bubbling oxygenation
As the brack
Settles into sand
And air escapes
Once again, gurgling
Out of the semi-solid surface.
My inspiration
Captured in bubbles
For brief moments — real!
In the end, a burst
Of emptiness, vapid dreams
Hollow constructions
Radiating energy but
Alas — empty…
These words, all that remain
Of the membrane of H2O
Clinging together desperately,
Delicately capturing a
Breath of life and then
Exuberantly
Exhaling it to the world.
Captive for one moment
Before being shared with
Every living thing.
The poem, the word of being.

Categories
2020 American Place Poems

Dwelling on the Past

I saw the
Volcanoes 3
In front of me
History

I saw the
Heavenly Stars
The Light from These
History

I saw
The thoughts
In my head
The reflections
They said,
“History”

My Present
Human Being
Exists in
The Past

I build the Future here.

Categories
2019 American Place Arizona Garden Psalms Poems

Mustang

When we
were out
on desert snow

Up top
our fair
equestr’an mounts

We saw
A lone
Ghostly Mustang

Upon
the hill.
Whiplashing mane

White

Like snow
It flows
flurry over muscle

Watch’d us
ride by
then off
with a stride

Chasing after Freedom

Categories
2019 Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Footnotes Poems Why

A poem

A poem
Is a feast for strangers
From the future
A poet is a fortune teller
From the present
Seemingly prescient
Presently misunderstood.

Categories
2019 American Place Garden Psalms Poems

Piedra Lumbre

It’s easy to see
Why Georgia O’Keefe
Landed in Abiquiu.
All these cowboy clouds
and sunshine smiles
So much painting to do.

Rosie red arches
And sulfur burning
With Yellowing tongues
Rising, Lashing out
Lapping up lapis
Skies, with brushes swung

Heavy oil to evoke
American dream.
A land growing lost
To the lush beauty
She acquired on
blank sheets of canvas.

”Stone of lumination.”

Categories
American Place Garden Psalms

Dead Horse

The Skull
from The Mountains
Bullet Hole
between the eyes
Whole body
puzzle of bones

Bone broken
on winter’s pass
Burden taken
under human foot
Friend fallen
Last farewell

Friends taken
to the woods
Too early
for human foot
Skull‘s burden
Taken home

To rest

A week in the Chama River valley

Categories
American Place Ars Poetica Garden Psalms

It speaks to you

I went to buy a book of poems
Hearts, identities, wants, failures
Scattered across pages, books, shelves of books, shelves of
poetic thrashings

Awaking from the same bad dream, writing the same bad poetry
that releases your free will to subjugation and lies
dormant in the pithy pulp, poet after poet
screaming unto no one, until

“I’ll take this one”

Categories
American Place Ars Philosophica Poems

Forged

Without Constraint there is only Chaos,
Without Chaos there can be no Creation.
In between Leaders are forged by the pressure.

Wisdom is knowing the Fire from the Anvil.
Leadership is wielding the Hammer without vanquishing the Flame.

Categories
Albuquerque American Place

A moment of silence for John Cummings

Categories
2023 Ars Philosophica Poems

Sparky

Is
there
A Darkness
(That from within my own mind can generate?)
A Spark
To make a canvass
Out of my inner space?
It starts in the generations
That came way before
Me

Embedded in my intuition by all
Those genetic relatives
That Inspired this
(blank)
Curiosity.
The Flame
Giving Light
for a New Ideology
An identifiable
Identification
An undeniable
Inspiration!

Categories
2023 Poems Why

What plan?

What is THE LIFE I want to lead?
What am I willing to sacrifice
Just to be
This fictionalized vision
(of myself) that no one else accepts?

Do I give up what I have, so I can fit?
My Triangle Peg
Into a Round World?
Where I’m misunderstood by almost 1/3?
The rest of me is lost
In the atmospheric swirl?

So, I don’t know, if I even could create
THIS MAN who I’ve made up.
Who is supposed to be
This HAPPY ME!
(who will never exist)
So, I need to understand
Before I come to THE END…
Just what it is I want?
Just what is the plan?

Categories
2023 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

for CH

I wish that I
………………could find something to say…
A clever story to ease the pain.
……A silly meme
………………to change your mood…
Ah, alas, what to do?
……When we’ve lost another friend!
A legend, a titan, a Gentleman.

What is one to do but
……………….to sit in silence.
Await the guns to fire!
And the trumpets to
……Call the triumph
Of the Heavenly Father
Who welcomes him
………….Home!
And, remember the place
……..In our hearts
……Where his light
……..Has shone!

Categories
Albuquerque American Place Footnotes

A moment of silence for Courtney “The Flash” Hines