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2020 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Bird Song

A bird
A bird
A bird has rhythm

Listen
Listen
Listen closely — To hear

If you
If you
Listen closely

A whole
New Lang-
uage will appear

Repeat
Repeat
The melody

The beat
The beat
Is very clear

The words
The words
These Words may not matter

The music
The music
Is more than a mirror

Categories
2020 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Happy Days

She was
A sweet
A sweet blue bird

Named “Happy”
She would even
let you hold her

Her Eggs
Were aquamarine
With golden yolks

American
Ameraucana
“The Easter Egger”

Though she
Stopped producing
Early in life

She was
Well regarded
By the Garden Club.

RIP

Categories
2020 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

The Day Happy Died

Tic tic
Says the clock
As it counts off your day

“Where
have you been?” He says,
“Happy has passed away…”

Dirty work
This garden farm
On any good day, not much harm

‘Cept for
The mice
Who’ve come to barn

But today
You know —
Was different too

It was
The day…
That Happy died—

Categories
2020 American Place Ars Philosophica Ars Poetica Poems

Faith in art

Divinations
Of an un-
Kind Spirit
Isolation
When you
Get perspective
From above
And can see
Yourself
On the astral
Plane. Comp-
rehension be-
gins again
When you
Return to
What is
Real and
Whole to
You. It’s
Harder than
It sounds!

Categories
2020 American Place New Mexico Poems

Footsteps in the past

These heavy feet
Burdened by ghosts
Of my grandfathers

Reminding history
Like wispy shackles
Dragging stowaways

On my ankles
Through my forest trek.
As walking in

Their steps of old
Ice cold conditions
Better gear for me

But me and my
Cold feet must carry
The miles of quiet.

My youngest son
Reminds me that
The 10 miles I

Journeyed were but
One day of 10
Miles for months

For the souls
Who took upon
The Oregon Trail.

I’ll keep my Coffee
Hot and my
Thoughts pastoral

And I will sleep
On my memory-foam
Mattress!

Categories
2020 Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

frond

Fushia on pale blue-green
Umbra to sage, or better yet
— cactus-colored…
The green of the desert floor
Giving way to disease and decay.
A brilliant burning out with one
valiant effort
The bright colors of its
luscious burgundy flower’s
fruit flaring away
like a New Mexico sunset.

Categories
2020 American Place Arizona Poems

Turn the page

Is there a place
In your mind
Where you can run?

A happy place
Of belonging
— the sound of a song

It’s warm here
This perfect moment
I can hear it carry

My heart
Into a nostalgia
A moment of sharing

Yet when I’m here
Its presence leaves
My soul longing

Melancholy surrender
To the past
Give way to New Dawning’s

The music keeps
Me

Turn the page!

Categories
2020 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

Sojourn

A place is just a place
Until it is your home
And when you are leaving
All your memories come along

But a place is just a place
When its people are not near
And in this place your place is missed
By those who hold you dear

But a place still holds your place
When you are far from here
It waits to welcome back
Sojourners who can hear

The calling of that place
And those who keep it warm
With memories of communion
Who await with open arms

Categories
2020 Albuquerque American Place Breaking Muse Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Cold Slice

Southernly winter Sun
Rises slow, casting
Angular shadows sideways
To the north

Cold morning fires burn
A smoky film releasing
Over the city, creeping
Down the valley

As the day progresses
Mountain’s depth revealing
Ridges and crevaces opening
To the warmth

Cold slice of Watermelon

Categories
2020 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

Silent

1.
Silent. Snow
On the ground.
No noise.
Not wind.
Not Bird.
Only the
Occasional
Dropping of water
From the trees.
“Da-lop”
Large, heavy
Beads hitting
Deep beds
Of white.
Then suddenly
“Kur-plasch!”
A whole
Snowball.
Cold radiating
From the
Blinding ground
Steaming
From mid-day sun
Casting
Saw blade shadows
From cactus fronds
On the blank canvas.