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2026 American Place Garden Psalms New Mexico Poems Poems of a Nature

You can’t hear the wind

You can’t hear the wind
Only what it hits.
You can feel the wind
As it hits you
In the face
Saying I am here
Hot and cold
Dry and wet
It hits
Gentle and comforting
Fresh and fragrant
From what it hits
No it is quiet as a breeze
Silently blowing
Until it hits the trees
Who whistle hum and sing
That we begin hearing

The Wind

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2025 American Place Garden Psalms Poems Texas

It’s Always Summer in the Backyard

Dirt, knees blown out of
my jeans from digging it.
(Mom had to buy
“ToughSkins”
to keep me from ruining them)
Soccer, lemonade
Kittens & Poodle
Tree House Fort
Cicada swarm hatching
Scaling the trees
Ready to turn from green
to chocolate brown

A Texas thunderstorm watched
from the porch swing

As childhood fades
with this old age
It seems like I remember—

It’s Always Summer
in the Backyard

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2025 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms LOVE New Mexico Poems

My Valentine

I don’t know what else to say
if I Lose You
I’d loose my way

For you are the Light
that keeps me strong
When in darkness
I sit and long
For you, the one
who makes me whole

The other part
of my divided soul

And on and on, my love
together we’ll stay…
Until we’re stardust
in the Milky Way

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

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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!

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2023 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms Poems Poems of a Nature

Earth Day

On this Earth Day 23
It’s a beautiful Day to Be
Out in the sun even as the wind carries
A warm spring day to make us cheery!

As we clear away clutter
That’s made such a mess,
Like a shed full of old camping gear
And a garage full of Christmas.

We think of how lucky to live on the earth
Sunny sun, diggy dirt, wet water, seedy birth
It all starts today and there’s so much to do
Bursts of growth, reaching out to see you

The Gardener who patiently watches time fly by
As everything at once blooms with life
And welcomes the death with all its fertility
As it brings forth new life and new creativity.

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 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 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