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
2022 American Place Colorado Garden Psalms LOVE Poems

Calm

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

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 Bird Song New Mexico Poems

Mr. Harris pays a visit

A visitor sat in
The Golden Rain Tree
Sitting and awaiting
Still and patiently
Usually, the Finches
And busy bobbing
Their red heads
But today if they
Come to visit
They may end up
Quite dead.

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

See

Brushing my teeth
In the back of the Jeep
Watching the birds
Watching you
Watching me

Categories
2022 American Place New Mexico Poems

Over My Head

Orion Vortex

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 American Place New Mexico Poems

A wish

I wish I had words
That painted the brush
Strokes of Georgia O’Keffe
Into your mind, so you
Could see these desert colors
Bleed into oily black shadows
Of grooves and crevices
Touched in browns and reds
Yellow grass waving on a
Horizon of gold juxtaposed
By the dim mountains
Rising in the background

Categories
2022 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms LOVE Poems

The words themselves are not enough

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

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 Dancer Hula Dragon

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