Categories
2019 American Place Poems

Flowers

I picked this
Flower for you
Because you
Deserve it!

I picked this
Flower for you
For when
You are blue.

I picked these
Flowers for you,
The ones in
Your pictures you keep.

I picked these
Flowers for you
Because you
Are my Mom.

I picked this
Flower for you
And you pressed it
And I kept it
Close to my heart.

Categories
2019 Ars Poetica Footnotes Poems Why

Poetry is dead?

I don’t
Want to practice
A dead art.

But you are practicing it
So how can it be dead?

Gone from the memory
Of the people. Lost
Are the words to them.
Confused by broken
Syntax and boiled down
Meanings. Un-reflected
Lives don’t contemplate
Their own depravity in
The face of those surrounding them.
Not enough words for
Comprehension available.

A failing of the Academies?

Lost to glowing gods
That speak of everything
And say nothing. No food
Left for the spirit of inquiry
Lost focus of the digitized mind.

Alas, poetry is dead unless we can resuscitate the culture.

Categories
2019 American Place Colorado Poems

Fresh Snow

Shrill, shrieking screams
Cold. Violent. Chilling
to hear in the distance
A sharp thud and another
and a scream and more
yelling I can’t understand…

As gentle flakes drift
and sway in the silent wind

A murder
of crows caw and bolt
into flight as the next
wail splits the silence.

Round white globes volley
back and forth
another thud
another scream
as I approach.

Fresh snow, two hands
A shocking cold spray of
force and wet hits your
cheek and sticks
to your glasses.

“Hey, no fair! I said not in the face.”

Categories
2019 Garden Psalms Poems

aspens

Auburn poles
From white holes
Paintbrushes
Jammed into soil
Painting the only
Color in the blinding
White mountainside.

Categories
2019 American Place Colorado Poems

Snow and Coal

A dark cloud rolls
O’er the town
Backlit by street lamps
Burning the midnight oil

As herds of children
In their ‘jams
Drag “experiential” parents
To the steam engine’s boil

For ‘cross this frosty
Little town
Large groups of people
Can be found

Searching for the next Express

Into a time they step
Back in line to board
The old coal and steel
From rail to tail first
Cold winter’s night

They experience the past
As if it were real
And Christmas wishes turn kisses
Into hot chocolate dreams. Awake
They return
Glowing with the magic of the season!

Categories
2019 American Place New Mexico Poems

Sketch

Manganese for iron horse
Pulled from mountains with no remorse
To birth a nation with lines of steel
Nature stripped but never killed
Meteorite from another world
Maybe the lizard’s celestial fuel

Categories
2019 Albuquerque American Place New Mexico Poems

Early Departure

Empty streets
only 3 kinds
Driving
Drunks, Cops, Work
4:55am
No cops
Tied up
w/ drunks?
No bodies
in a hurry
to get
to work.
Flight
6:05am
Don’t want
to be late
for the
wait.

Categories
2019 Poems

Changing Second

Frosted espionage
Creeping sword, reaching
Shard. Lock. Hold. Arc.
Sweeping across smooth glass
Building architecture in
seconds. Barrier to clarity
Corrupting a clear view to the
outside world. Starburst
anemone. Prism prison
rapid takeover from two
opposing forces driving
chemical change. No pattern
repeating. Seemingly permanent…
Blown away with
one hot breath.

Categories
2019 Albuquerque American Place Garden Psalms Poems

Early Snow

Whipping torrent
Whistles away
Last hold outs.
Stripping bare trees
In preparation
For first snow;
Long and calm
After wild wisps.
Clouds; tentacles
Reaching out
To whip the
Sky to attention
And receive
The constant
Constellation;
Stars dancing
In the street lights.
Settling into
Contrasting parallels;
Vascular branches,
Reaching out.
Breathless.
Persistent.
Silent.
Mesmerizing…

Categories
2019 Albuquerque American Place Poems

Thanksgiving Day

Relief.
Months of
Mounted
pressures
Released
for the
first time.
Steam bursting
from a boil
of potatoes
changing
soiled
potential
into energy.
Gathered
friends to
remember
and enjoy
the bounty
that our labors
have provided.
“Let us give thanks.”