Archive for the ‘Sonoran Desert’ Category

Spinose Teeth   Leave a comment

Spinose Teeth; Thorns, Spines, and Prickles — Image by kenne

Every desert plant
comes with a disclaimer:

Handle with care.
Admire from a distance.
Do not mistake
the green for an invitation.

Out here, survival
is sometimes just
the art of being
difficult to embrace.

At Sunset, The Desert Has Little Patience   Leave a comment

Sunset From Blackett’s Ridge Trail (10/11/11) — Image by kenne

I watched the sunset

nestle into the cactus’s embrace

while the shadows climbed

the flanks of the Catalinas.

The desert has little patience

for people in a hurry.

It asks only that you

sit still long enough

to notice what was already there.

 

 

Another Beautiful Sonoran Sunset   Leave a comment

Sonoran Sunset -- Image by kenne

The mountains darken, but above them
red, orange, and yellow gather
like old spirits around a fire,
warming the vast desert silence
one final time before night.


Happy Mother’s Day From The Desert Southwest   1 comment

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Sonoran Spring Wildflowers   Leave a comment

Sonoran Spring Wildflowers — Image by kenne

Along the trail,
the desert wildflowers arrive quietly—
yellow, violet, white—
as if the desert, after months of restraint,
has decided to speak
in small bursts of color.

Sonoran Blue Sky   Leave a comment

Sonoran Blue Sky — Image by kenne

The sky lays itself down
across the mountains
like a second world—
blue poured into stone.
No sermon here,
just light telling rock
what it already knows.

A Sonoran Morning   Leave a comment

A Sonoran Morning — Image by kenne

Bright sunlight, black tower, white sky.
The blades carve the morning into pieces.

Somewhere a tank fills,
somewhere a man believes
he has mastered this land.

But the wind owns the rhythm,
and the desert keeps the final say.

— kenne

Soaptree Yacca   Leave a comment

Soaptree Yacca — Image by kenne

Wind scrapes the flats raw.

The yucca holds its green knives

close to the bone of earth.

Bloom is rare.

That’s the point.

In this place

beauty is earned slowly.

— kenne

Great Blue Heron   1 comment

Great Blue Heron — Image by kenne

Golden eye

tracking light on scales.

No hurry in him—

only weather,

only patience

older than bridges upstream.

The river keeps moving.

He does not.

— kenne

The Presence Of The Reaven   3 comments

Reaven In The Desert — Image by kenne

I have distrusted symbols

most of my life,

yet there it is—

black wings over sand

that has forgotten rain.

The bird does not promise rescue.

It promises presence.

In the desert,

that distinction matters.

— kenne

Sonoran Desert Storm   2 comments

Cactus Wren Waits for the Dust from a Desert Storm to Move On — Image by kenne

Morning haze rolls in

like a tired excuse.

The desert listens,

doesn’t argue,

lets it pass.

— kenne

Sharing Berries   6 comments

Cedar Waxwings Sharing Berries — Image by kenne 

They pass a berry

beak to beak, politely,

as if time allows this. 

— kenne

Old Tucson Backlot   1 comment

Backlot props — Image by kenne

I wander the dusty backlot of Old Tucson
where a broken wagon wheel leans
against a wall the color of old adobe.

A sign reads Props, but really,
who can tell?

Everything here looks equally retired—
the wooden crates, the tin stars,
the barrel with no bottom.

I stand there wondering
if this is what happens to a life too:
all our moments stored behind a door
labeled with someone else’s handwriting.

— kenne

I Love Rugged Men — A Desert Fable   1 comment

Old Prickly Pear and Longleaf False Goldeneye — Image by kenne

Desert Fable

“I love rugged men,”
said the bright little flower,
stretching toward the sun.

The old prickly pear
only chuckled—

“Child, love the wind instead.
He’ll come and go,
but never cling.”

Sunset Sky   Leave a comment

Sunset Sky — Image by kenne

Photography patronizes.
Life moves—
blur, breath, forgetting.

A flash halts it,
fixes detail
into permanence—
which is its lie.

— kenne