Long Joaquin Poems

Is ARANJUEZ a pining after the composer's mother ?

(Joaquin Rodrigo - 1901-1999 - who composed the " Aranjuez " concerto on piano in 1938/9 and which later was destined for the guitar and orchestra, turned...

Read More

Back again ...

Her daily hour of hope ...
She came every evening to The Hem ...
Just a big hole in the earth, really, a barren canyon of dust,
Perched on the south edge of the Congo, near...

Read More

“Women can change better’n a man,” Ma said soothingly. “Woman got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in his head.”
“Man, he lives in jerks-baby born an’ a man dies, an’ that’s...

Read More

It’s not just Jesus who rose into grace with scars from nails and the cross

Trees grow new branches from knots like wounded soul’s blemish’s scars

A rainforest’s undergrowth thrives in the mist of weeping from heaven

Ebony...

Read More

I REMEMBER THE LITTLE GIRL

BMWs shine on the lot, row after row,
reflecting the blinding summer sun of Pinedale, California.
Their windows blink back stories of 4,792 Japanese Americans
interned on this same lot seventy-eight years ago.

I remember...

Read More

Redding Poem 4
“Flying Down Interstate 5”

We departed Redding at 3:45, 
In the dead of an October night.
Those tumultuous streets were morgues then,
As we raced to the deserted Interstate 5,
Zooming across the snoozing Sacramento River,
Going at...

Read More

There are kingdoms with no throne
There are children with no love
There are mums who remain alone
There is no love with no one to love

A child alone in the dust and muds
Bitterly covered with rugs and...

Read More

The Empty Academy Schoolhouse

It stands on a vast green lot,
No trees to shelter it from heavy, gray clouds
on the rolling foothill horizon.
Its thin coat of white paint peels,
revealing bare, dry-rotted wood.
The rickety porch boards,
once sturdy...

Read More

Sweet organic scents waft softly 
through the vast and endless valley
where myriads of trees grow in tight rows
marked by long lines of rich, robust soils
that brighten with the rising sun. 

I am happily lost in...

Read More

we're here again
you in denim skirt
shrinking against long legs
I in (imaging) nothing
sheen & glisten in moonlight
interior car lamp light
tan
crimped high hair & bangs
blue eyeliner
mascara
easy to manuever
baggy sweater
boots both pleasant
left
on or off
coco chanel palpable
down the smooth...

Read More

Every Sunday after church
Old great-aunt Dora
Full bloodied Cherokee,
In her finest dress and fedora,
Drove her pink Cadillac
To the San Joaquin River.
She would stop in the same place
And sat on an old stump,
Under a camphor tree,
By the...

Read More

He is coming again. I can  always feel when he is on his way because my heart starts to race and I feel the fear. 
The fear of soldiers busting in. 
People being murdered...

Read More

This is a portrayal of one of my favorite paintings by 
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida: Spanish painter 1863 - 1923. 
The title of his portait I am writing about is called
"Paseo a orilla del mar"...

Read More

The Afternoon Moon

Grandmother reclines in the passenger seat,
while sunlight glows through her white wavy hair.
Her cheeks rosy, she smiles at me 
as I drive east toward the Blossom Trail.
I beam back, then remember
my mask hides...

Read More

SONATA FOR CHRISTMAS EVE RAIN

I.	 I sit in my friend’s armchair,
waiting for her to get ready for church.
Pianissimo, the raindrops fall in quick, staccato rhythm 
on the windows, the roof, and the pool.
I imagine the...

Read More

( El Faro means the lighthouse)

El Faro #1

salt is in my tears
for the grace of god go I
Fiddlers Green awaits

El Faro #2

brothers and sisters
Joaquin cries tears of sadness
forever leeward

El Faro #3

El Faro now rest
sleep deep...

Read More

When Grandma Tutu said she owned a gun,
my mother freaked! She gasped! How she was stunned!
She wanted Tutu to throw it away,
but then forgot. The gun was there to stay.
We never knew where Tutu had...

Read More