Category: Poems

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2021 American Place New Mexico Poems

Ripples Through Time

Ripples In Time

I sit in my canoe
Thinking of you
My Mentor
My teacher
A man drifting in calm
Waters of the present
Looking across the ripples
Of the past.
You taught me the blessings
Of Smoke
Steaming Cedar branches
And Sweat
You taught me how to return
To our Mother
Hold her sacred
Center
and
Still
Oneself as the
Ghosts of the Buffalo
Silently graze on by
As shimmering ancestors
Follow
Singing their stories
To you
Creating a new narrative
That will ripple
Out into the Future–
For nothing created
Is ever truly destroyed.

Categories
2021 Poems

Broken 2

My heart is broken
Not a teenage love un-requited
A literal misfire
In my bifurcation
One side getting the cue
The other don’t know what to do

My heart is broken
Not my emotional figure
No this is real
Not some token
Something has gone wrong
That could end my song.

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2021 Poems

Pop Ice

I’m addicted to Popcicles
I just can’t stop with the otter pop
Cold
Crunch
Sugary
Munch
For dinner and lunch
I make them
Disappear
Yes it’s weird!
I think I’ve
Gained 5 pounds
Slurpin’ them down
I know it sounds strange
But the slush
The sweet rush
Cold tongue stain
Freeze brain
Making me insane
For
Popcicles!

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2021 Garden Psalms Poems

Deep thoughts

Spring flowers bloom
Bright and buoyant
A sea of shimmering potential
Then the unbridled sun
Beats upon them like a drum
Until they are withered dry
And drooping down
Faded colors, petals falling
A return to soil as
The seeds are calling
To be carried into some
Future spring.
When you get disheartened
Breaking down
–Feel forgotten
Know that the circle
Always turns round again
And the things that you lost
You may soon come across
As you complete
This rotation
Around the sun.

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2021 Ars Poetica Poems

Self-deprecation

What radical shapes
Can these lines take
To blow the minds
Of the critical judge?
My rhythms and beats
Would soon hit delete
If held to the academic lens.
My forms seem standard
My themes unenlightened
The topics of today
Shaped by cruelty.
My meter 4/4
My couplets I adore
My birds and trees
Are all that come from me.
What would they have me do
To stand out from you?
The poet deemed better
Than the rest?
What duress must I endure
What heartbreak must I cure
To be considered the
Greatest of this age?
Some sage for the annals
Whose words fill these halls
And speak to a new
Generation as the
Voice and wisdom of the nation?

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2021 Ars Poetica Poems

Gone Fishing

So few times
To Carry me
Through these days
Lately
So little written down
As I toss
These thoughts
Around
As if they
Are forbidden
To see the light
Of day.
Gone fishing,
Off camping
Must work
Or some other
Excuse
To refuse
To record
This poet’s dream.

Categories
2021 Ars Poetica Poems

Write, right?

Write, Write
Everyday
Even if
You have nothing
To say
Make it habit
More than a goal
If you don’t
Just do it
You’re leaving
A Hole
In your notebook
Where thoughts
Should assemble
And emptiness
Is what’s left
To ressemble
That you had nothing
To say
And no one cares
Anyways
So write, write
Every day
Before you’re dead
And left
Something unsaid.

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2021 American Place Bird Song New Mexico Poems Road Less Travelled

Last Hoorah

One last hoorah
Before The Spirit of Summer
Succumbs to the seriousness
Of Education and Work
That signals the American
Tradition of Fall
That seems to come earlier
And earlier each year
As administrative minds
Decide for the masses
That the excess of
Time and energy is the
Corruption of Mind and Learning —
So into the woods we’ve run
With cedar and river
And Freedom and Fun
To learn the bird’s songs
One last time and throw
Our poles to lure one last
Meal from the waters
The lessons of the wild
Provide the mild mind
With relaxation and realization
That a simpler life may be
Required to grasp the enlightenment
That a generation sought there
Generations back as they fought
To find what lacked in their daily life.

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2021 American Place Colorado New Mexico Poems Utah

Last Day, Last

It’s the last day
Of our family outing
Alone I sit with
Dog and pen
To re-collect this
time spent passing
With my loved ones
Out in the open
Breathing the air
Of the American West
Full of trees
And smoke and dust
Hot air, cool air
Dry air, wet air
We’ve made so many stops
I can no longer compare.
I’m bone-tired from
100 Miles walked
So many things we’ve seen
So many times we’ve talked
All such inspiring scenes
No aspirations mocked
To find this life serene
On happiness we’ve stocked
The bare cupboards
Of our souls
And fill our empty holes
With moments where we lived
So that we’d have more to give
Each other and our world
Full of memories we clutch like pearls.

Categories
2021 American Place Garden Psalms Poems Utah

Archland

The Land of Edward Abbey
The Land of Desert Solitaire
The Land that inspired
An entire conservation movement.
The Land of the Black Widow
The Coyote and the Rattlesnake
Where Mountain Lions used to roam before they were banished from their home by the development from which The Park was developed to protect.
The Land of Red Sand and Slick Rock where if you walk long enough
You will be rewarded with Vistas that thwart adjectives of all sorts to describe this incommunicable beauty.
This Land where stones fall away to make the objects of your day’s
Pursuit across this waterless garden.
The Land that draws so many
Out of their homes; out of their cities
To reunite their families and populate their Snapchat feeds.
This Land that calls the human spirit to bear this Heat and push their limits to be inspired by This Land
And renew this desire for protection
So that generation after generation
May review and renew This Land until the rains make something new of This Land!