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Manzanita Poems

Harbor

...Unprison in my heart,
Unlock words I struggle giving;
Like the flutter of a lark,
Wing what's coming from within me;

Let my soul be set on fire,
Like madrone, or manzanita,
To promote the wor...

Categories: manzanita, emotions, feelings, how i
Form: Lyric

Manzanita

...("Lone Pine", 2024, original pen and ink with encaustic mat)

Manzanita

Manzanita
atop a slight rise
forms a natural shrine
The place a person
could place an offering
or say a prayer...

Categories: manzanita, blessing, spiritual,
Form: Narrative

The Teacher of Peace

...In the tangle of wood
Delighted by the scent of earth rich warmth
Of forest floor fusion
The carpet of needles dance with the rhythm of your step
And lead you to its tranquility

Its crisp crac...

Categories: manzanita, beauty, imagery, peace,
Form: Free verse

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry

Winter Blues

...The Manzanita clacks in 
gelid breezes
like the clap of clacking bones. 

Reddish painted branches 
reach their grey, bent shadows 
on stone from

hulking, brewing
drifting welkins.

Peeli...

Categories: manzanita, blue, dark, feelings, solitude,
Form: Free verse

Hiker Dude

...Hiker Dude

Commander of the view of the curving earth
the Piñon stands a-grip a forest of boulders,
jagged giants, held in place by her, a part of her,
at her bidding.

The lone hiker dude,
...

Categories: manzanita, environment, happiness, nature,
Form: Free verse

Chaparral

...The land sizzles.
Brittle grass
yellows the hills.
Live oak draw sparse circles
of shade.
Spiky shrubs
cling to the parched slopes:
red stemmed manzanita,
spiny scrub oak.
Hot wind rustles t...

Categories: manzanita, fire, nature,
Form: Free verse

Miniature Juniper

...Although I hardly gave it a thought
I didn't really doubt
our miniature juniper, a bonsai,
would survive our desert vacation.
                                                  It likes the dry
a...

Categories: manzanita, bird, flower, history, love,
Form: Verse

Rattle

...The tan ropes are rattlesnakes 
that tie and untie themselves, 
clumps of spines untangled
from earth, loops and S’s
curling, like damaged ribs.

My body is a tight cage that
the snakes move a...

Categories: manzanita, art, dream, senses, wisdom,
Form: Free verse

Hummingbird

...Hummingbird sits, rests
Manzanita twig tight gripped
Brilliant throat flashes...

Categories: manzanita, beauty, nature,
Form: Haiku

Sedona's Cathedral Rock

...A boulder looks down upon her children below;
Varied rocks worn smooth by the creek’s swift flow.
As the bright sun glistens on her lovely rust hue,
She shares her delight of her little ones in vi...

Categories: manzanita, adventure, mystery
Form: Rhyme

Taking the Dog To the Vet

...I called and called. She wouldn’t come.
Hiding in manzanita – had she
become a wild thing?

Search partner for eleven years.

Now, tumors in her lungs. 
It was time. We’d dug the grave
and sp...

Categories: manzanita, animals
Form: Free verse

Down In the Rail Road Flats

...Twas a little piece of heaven in a bigger spot of hell,
Nestled in the bosom of the Sierra Nevadas.
I wasn't sure just what planet I had just landed on,
An alien invader in a strange mountain fold...

Categories: manzanita, nature, nostalgia, places
Form: Free verse

Searching the Dark

...July 1983, another phone call after midnight, 
another long drive, your Shepherd-dog head 
in my lap. How many people got lost that summer!

Late March 1986, by flashlight on dirt paths 
of The ...

Categories: manzanita, animals, death, time, me,
Form: Free verse