Best Joshua Tree Poems

Some may look to distant Mars
among radiant stars.
Get to the desert, you'll find more
much nearer ours. 

Nearer than any man knows. 
Ancestral, celestial bones, 
secret kept in Mojave's botany
seldom seen
though I've never been.    

Spread of clustered flowering panicles..
tall giants in sun swept...

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We went headlong into Joshua Tree,
      the four of us.

Flower maps, Del Taco stops, cigarette butts, and Steel Kettle
      armed us through the hot desert air.

This was a time when my voice was lost, 
...

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Written January 1, 2014


I'm just passing through 
This tumbleweed town
Wondering why anyone would
Bother to stay around
When the truths that are spoken
By our mothers and fathers
Are lies told to quiet our fears
To quench the thirst
Of a man counting his years

So today is the day
When I'll be...

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When lightning strikes the Joshua tree
The air is frightfully clear.
The children quiet their 
Jacks and Jump ropes
As the suburbia settles it's ears.
An ivy beneath a sycamore tree 
Watching a fire with envy.

It wonders,
How on nature's rich, ripe earth
Is there a power
So quick to devour
The beauty...

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branches reach skyward like arms to Heaven  
alone between sand and sun
waiting for an answer


By Rhonda Johnson-Saunders
Sixth place in One Tree in a Distant Field contest...

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JOSHUA TREE GIG
My love isn't dead; but it's dying;
I searched for truth and I thought it was you.
When I understood you were lying,
I loved you more, for what good it would do.

My love is the fire of sunrising,
road to L.A. through the Joshua Tree.
My songs...

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Its special indifference
and weathering smile,
reminds every passer
 —its strength and its guile

It stands in the desert
alone and unbowed,
to flower in protest
—its nature avowed 

(Tuweep Arizona: January, 2018)...

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Car gliding gently, whirling down 
Mountain engine idling fine 
Tall pines flying in circles
Going on for a circumnavigatingly long time
Around the world, no houses
Around the trees, no world
Buzzcut for a boy
Frizz for a girl

Reaching the highway
Open your mouth 
To the north and south sierra mountains
Grey...

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