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.

Open Meeting

Post author By Makar
Post date August 29, 2022
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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

2022 American Place Ars Philosophica New Mexico Poems Road Less Travelled

Xolo

Post author By Makar
Post date August 29, 2022
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The Highway
–Treacherous and dangerous–
She pluck lives
From her surface daily
Waves her curves
And suddenly it will emerge
–DEATH–
She leaves in her wake
Heartache
Memorial Flags
And Crosses
Holding the losses in place
Until Xolo* returns
To gather those souls
Whose People never let go
Because The Road
Took Her Toll…
So, Xolo
Barks at them
“It’s time to go!”
Yet, the souls are confused
Because everyone they knew
Still honors
The Road
For Her
Victory!

*Psychopomp – Greek word for soul collector. This was the role of Hermes and Cheron in ancient Greeks. The Angel of Death. The Vikings had Valkyries. The North Americans, Whippoorwills and Loons. The Aztec had the Dog-headed Xolotl, the dark Venus, Xolo the soul collector.

2022 American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Hornet

Post author By Makar
Post date August 29, 2022
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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

2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Drone

Post author By Makar
Post date August 23, 2022
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Black
Black
Bumble
Bee
Matte and
Chrome
Ready to
Race
Yet slow
And deliberate
Collecting
Pollen trace
Shine
And fur
A Drone
Busy

2022 American Place Ars Poetica Breaking Muse Poems Road Less Travelled

The Language Becomes Death

Post author By Makar
Post date August 11, 2022
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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".

2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

Shovel, Shovel

Shovel, Shovel
Long and Lean

“Why in the ground of The Garden
Are you buried?”

“To keep The Puppy
From digging up Pere*.
I must dig in and guard the grave
As the Morning Glories climb up
And the Sunflowers bloom above.
I must stand vigil
Until the worms are through
And then I can go back to being
A shovel too…”

*Peregrine was our oldest chicken

2022 American Place LOVE New Mexico Poems

I shed a tear for the violin

Post author By Makar
Post date July 31, 2022
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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

2022 Albuquerque American Place LOVE Poems

They Are The River

The River’s Genesis
Comes from the tears of the gods
Crying with Joy
At the birth of her power!
She will change everything she touches.
Men will bow and beg to drink from her.
Villages spring up everywhere
She returns to fill the valley.
She is the great changer
of Mountains and molehills.
She
Takes the
Shape that
Suits Her
She disappears when conditions aren’t in her favor.
She is fierce
And will swell with deadly force
When threatened. She accepts the form
Of the vessels that bring her calm.
She is
Transformative
She is transforming.
She is Beautiful!
Just like you.

2022 Albuquerque American Place Bird Song Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems

“Oh, no.”

Post author By Makar
Post date July 23, 2022
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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!”