Category: American Place

These are poems that aim at reflecting something uniquely American in experience. Be it a place. Or a person or an experience. It had to happen somewhere to become something.

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

Commence

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
Albuquerque American Place

A moment of silence for John Cummings

…

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

Slow and Steady

Slow and Steady the snow falling through the air low clouds hanging near

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

Impressions of Jemez

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 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

…

Categories
2023 American Place Garden Psalms Poems Poems of a Nature

Landlord

This is my land
………….I am made up of her soils
…I am filled with her waters
………………I bleed
………….And make clay
………………With Fire
………………..A Vessel
…..To fill again this body
…………….with the soil
……………..And the water
……………………of this
…………………………My Land

Categories
2023 American Place Bird Song New Mexico Poems Poems of a Nature

Tiny

Little tiny
….Tit Mouse
Standing in the Cedar Tree
Has ceased his sweet little whistle
And is keeping an eye on me.
Here is a whole family
Singing Sweetly…
Looking for a morning meal
And a little bit of company.

–Chama, NM