Archive for the ‘Tucson’ Tag
Sunset Over The Santa Catalina Mountains Viewed from The Rincon Mountains — Image by kenne
Time in Tucson
We’re gonna spend some time in Tucson.
Watch the mountains wear away.
Gonna spend some time in Tucson,
Where the moment makes the day.
We’ll eat the sunrise for breakfast,
Have blue skies for lunch.
For dinner, ponder on a falling star,
Least, that’s our hunch.
We hear a song from The Old Pueblo,
Calling out our name to dance,
We’ve got to leave for Tucson,
While we’ve got the chance.
Gonna spend some time in Tucson.
Watch the mountains wear away.
Gonna spend some time in Tucson,
Where the moment makes the day.
— Dave Pierce
Corner of N Main And Washington Street, Tucson, Arizona — Image by kenne
El Presidio
The Hohokam were there first
Always a landmark.
— kenne
View from Guthrie Peak Trail, Catalina Highway to the Right, Down Through Sycamore Canyon, Thumble Peak, Blackett’s Ridge, Tucson,
The Tucson Mountains with The Quinlan Mountains on the Tohono O’odham Nation In The Distance.
— Image by kenne
Tall trees stand behind
Scrubs cover the mountainside
Through which a road runs.
Rocky peaks reach up
Form a desert silhouette
Above the basin.
Clouds move slowly by
Cover parallel ranges
Hugging Old Pueblo.
— kenne
A Panorama View Down Through Madera Canyon In The Santa Rita Mountains South of Tucson, Arizona.
(Note the light color of mining tailings surrounding ponded water.)
— Image by kenne
We Scar The Things We Love
There is always something worth trekking
in the Sonoran Desert.
Sometimes, the treks start early in the morning,
driving across the Tucson basin over
occasional low water crossings and cattle guards
on narrow roads, stopping for big yellow buses.
A canyon road leads out of Green Valley,
a quiet, peaceful community
along the banks of the Santa Cruz River
covered with oaks and walnut trees
and a rich history with the Tumacacori Mission
to the south and San Xavier del Bac to the north.
Crossing one-lane bridges through a grassland bajada,
the road climbs toward Madera Canyon
nestled between Mt. Wrightson and Mt. Hopkins
on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains,
forming one of the Sonoran desert’s Sky Islands,
an oasis above this bowl-shaped canyon.
Although some are called “Friends of Madera Canyon”
all visitors, be they hikers, birders, walkers,
or just those relaxing at one of the beautiful vistas
share a love of nature and being outdoors,
forming a friendship that helps bond
memoirs of a shared love.
“All the while, jumbled memories flirt out on their own,”
intruding on nature’s beautiful vistas
where a river once ran through, now shadowed
by a high wall of tailings surrounding a pond,
altering nature’s beautiful vistas above the canyon,
producing lasting scars on the sky above and the earth below.
— kenne
View from Above Esperero Canyon In The Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne
Creosote Bush
Mexican Poppy
Fairy Duster — Images by kenne
Desert Dances
Dormant desert awakes.
She drinks deep, stretches, sighs
exhales fragrant blossoms
on her warm, pregnant breath.
Her soft, supple sagebrushed
sparkling curves adorned with
splashes of pink, white phlox
and sprays of desert peach
invite you to tumble
down her snowy mountains
to abandon yourself
to wildflower wanders
to soothe in her hot springs
to rejoice in salty
waters of turquoise lakes.
Desert dances await.
— Gwendolyn Alley
Northern Shoveler Duck Feeding At Whitewater Draw — Image by kenne
The Duck
Behold the duck
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond.
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.
— Ogden Nash
My 2007 BMW 3-Series coupé next to an intruder! — Image by kenne
TURNER’S LAW
If you park your car far away from other cars in a parking lot, some asshole in a pick-up truck will park next to you. Go figure!
“Half-full glass of water view: Maybe it’s just a thoughtful asshole — whatever, it’s still my law.
kenne
I Will Descent Into The Maze, Deo Volente — Image by kenne
Deo volente, I
Will descent into the maze
On the canyon floor.
— kenne
Morning Loneliness — Image by kenne
Morning Loneliness
The pain that falls
behind his eyes
as he fades away
into his mind.
I try to get him
to come home again
away from his morning loneliness. It happens each time
I wake up and see
his eyes light up
like a fire of thoughts
that flare into life
then fades into morning loneliness.
But by the time the sun
has shone its full glory
his loneliness changes
to something more.
like the tide it turns
to a life of anger
away from his morning loneliness.
“What did the saguaro cactus say to the boulder? — Image by kenne
“Did-did you feeeel the ground shake!!??”
Desert Solitude — Image by kenne
Edward Abbey wrote in his 1968 book, Desert Solitaire —
“. . . we need nature to “startle the senses and surprise
the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us
into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful—
that which is full of wonder.”
Cholla Forest at the Base of Panther Peak in the Tucson Mountains — Panorama Image by kenne
Sonoran Desert
by Tara Trewinnard-Boyle
How lucky am I? I have found my home!
In the place of dust and rock where the lizards run,
Where hot winds whip and the sun sears through a lapis colored sky.
Where Saguaros march uninhibited across the arid land.
Miles and miles of emptiness: freedom.
This is the place where Mother Nature still shows her true beauty.
Wild and uncompromising, she cuts me down to my rightful size.
Teaching me to live without; demand less; appreciate more.
Silently reminding me that the race is of my own making.
I can be free.
I have found my home. Not the home I was born to but where I belong.
The ache of leaving weighs heavy in my heart.
But today I can carry with me a gift, humbly offered to all who seek.
The desert is more than a place; it is a state of mind.
It is life and death, land and sky, struggle and freedom.
Slow! Your frantic pace does not matter here.
Breathe and be grounded in your humanness.
Be still and find your small place in this vast world.
You belong, just as you are. In the silence you can find peace.
This is the gift of the desert; for which I am eternally grateful.
Beyond Tucson Event at Sabino Canyon, January 11, 2014 — Images by kenne
Beyond Tucson is an annual community-wide event that occurs each year in early January to commemorate the January 8, 2011 shooting. Its purpose is to help the community move beyond by coming together, much in the same way they spontaneously gathered after the tragedy, and by doing so commit to be better and be better together:
“To spend more time with those we love,
and to reach out to those we don’t yet know.
To get outdoors and enjoy nature’s beauty,
and to fully embrace all that life has to offer.
To push ourselves beyond our normal boundaries,
and to strive for that next peak on the horizon.”
(. . . from Beyond Tucson website.)
One of the community-wide events took place at Sabino Canyon Recreation Area where activities were organized by the Forest Service and the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists. Visitors had opportunities to learn about nature, take guided nature walks and hikes — must I not forget, get their picture taken with Smoky Bear.
kenne
High Chaparral Ranch Set at Old Tucson Studios — Image by kenne
My Heart Beats Free
by Keith Ward
Oh how I loved them TV shows and the stories I’d read,
About the cowboys and their horses free and brave.
Heroes to us young boys, a rare and special breed.
Taught us how true men should behave.
And I’d dream about someday and I’d dream about the west.
And I’d dream about the man that I would be.
And I felt that man’s heart beating inside a boy’s chest,
And I knew that heart would die if not set free.
. . . click here to read more.
TURNER’S LAW
If you park your car far away from other cars in a parking lot, some asshole in a pick-up truck will park next to you. Go figure!
“Half-full glass of water view: Maybe it’s just a thoughtful asshole — whatever, it’s still my law.
kenne
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