Regrets

Santa Rita Mountains in Arizona 8-7-2010

I guess it’s too late to be a ballerina, lithe, graceful and pretty.

I guess it’s too late to own my own horse and ride wildly over the fields.

I guess it’s too late to build a log cabin, all from scratch with my own trees and on my own land.

I guess it’s too late to live in the mountains, far away from anyone or anything.

I guess it’s too late to live in Idaho, a place more wild and beautiful than I could have imagined.

I guess it’s too late to be an Indian princess and live in a teepee and wear a buckskin dress and moccasins.

I guess it’s too late to become a doctor and practice in some faraway place where I am most needed.

I know it’s too late to save my poor dog, the beautiful Irish Setter—poetry in motion. I let him down. He was my friend. He was my heart.

But it is never too late to sing my own song, or write my own story.

It is never too late to love, or forgive,

or to dream.

~ Kathie Adams Brown (4-1-15)

End O'Day in the Catalina Foothills

I listened to the thrasher’s call

I heard coyotes sing

As the sun went down and the cactus glowed

And Gambel’s Quail took wing,

In the Catalina Foothills

When daylight fades to night

The birds and I—we are Wild Things

Dancing in golden light.

~kathie adams brown (October 2, 2013)

September Moon

Moonrise over the Rincon Mountains

The harvest moon
rising full behind the Rincon Mountains,
a glowing orb in a cobalt sky,
with poorwills calling from the rocky canyons
and a dry desert wind running free
like a ghost horse
between cactus and sagebrush
telling me an age-old story,
whispers from the past
illuminated by the light
of a September moon.

~kathie adams brown (September 20, 2013)

Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

Running Home

Santa Rita Mountains, Tucson, AZ 2010

What is this that awakens me?

What is this pull I feel?

I rise on a sunny morning,

I get into my car and drive,

I pass beneath a Swainson’s hawk circling above,

I leave the city streets behind.

Around me, the desert opens wide—

I feel my mind relaxing

As each mile falls behind,

And then I see the wonder

Of this wild place

Each mile draws me closer

To these cactus covered slopes

Where birds fly free in a pale blue sky,

Where birds nest in pale green scrub,

Where mountain peaks rise up and stand

Shoulder to shoulder towering

Over spiny saguaros,

Deep canyons,

And me.

—I am being called

—I am being pulled

—I am running

Home.

~Kathie Adams Brown (April 17, 2013)

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day 17 Prompt: Write a poem of greeting.

I Cannot Tell a Lie

Sandy Point Sunset, Plum Island, MA

I could tell you that an elephant walked

right through my Arizona yard today

stomping my cactus into a mess,

leaving my garden all a wreck!

I could tell you that I took a ride on a feathery cloud

over the mountains through an azure sky,

when I was bored at lunch time.

I could tell you I turn into a silver mare at night

with wings on my feet and a silken mane,

and that I follow a moonbeam path into the starry sky

Galloping all the way!

I could tell you I was lost at sea

tossed and tumbled in cold blue waves,

and just as I was about to drown

a humpback whale brought me home,

and sang to me along the way!

I could tell you I once met Madame Curie

And she let me help her in her laboratory,

And that I was really the one who discovered

The magic and mystery of radium.

I could tell you I crossed the wide prairie

with grasses long and flaxen in autumn

with long skirts flowing in a prairie wind,

and buffalo thundering by!

I could tell all of these things and more,

But…

as He of the Cherry Tree said,

I cannot tell a lie, so I’ll tell a story instead!

~Kathie Adams Brown (April 2, 2013)

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day 2

Run to the Wild Places

Whenever I am lost to myself

I run to the wild places

Seeking my true self

In the deep green forest of New England,

I am the Wood Thrush’s song,

In the Colorado Rockies

My spirit soars with eagles,

In the dry desert canyons of Arizona,

I run with the coyotes,

Along the ocean’s shore

I cut through the air like a shearwater,

Or play in the surf like a sanderling,

I am an antelope on the prairie,

A wild horse running on the plains,

I am a wild thing, and I need these wild places,

For they are all me,

And they make me feel alive.

~Kathie Adams Brown (February 7, 2013)

How Love Should Be

So I wonder if one can fall in love again,

is there a second chance in life?

Can it ever be as good as your first love?

and I wonder if I love again

if it is a betrayal of my first love?

Or, is my heart and my life

big enough to contain both?

But then, perhaps,

Love cannot be contained?

Maybe it is meant to spill out

and overflow,

and rush joyfully like a river

down the mountainside,

tumbling over stones

with a little gray Dipper

darting into the cascade,

hunting for water insects.

Perhaps this is how love should be.

~Kathie Adams Brown (February 7, 2013)

The Mountains

Seek the highest mountain

run upon the hills

Let the trees surround me,

I leap the rocks and rills.

To breathe fresh mountain air,

as an eagle to fly free, 

to glide in air, to glide in time,

to live and to be me.

While leaves will laugh and sing and warn,

wind whispers secrets low,

Listen to the sound of living,

being where I want to go.

Fulfilling dreams around each corner,

to rest in Nature with a sigh,

Never take me from the mountains,

here let me live, here let me die!

~Kathie Adams Brown (November 11, 1975)

Original Title: My Dream, My Wish

The Song of the Say's Phoebe

I awoke to the song of a Say’s Phoebe

Calling me out to the dawn,

It pumped its tail while on the tall vent pipe,

It lifted its beak to the gray monsoon sky,

And as the sun broke through the wooly clouds

Suspended over the Rincon mountains

A single sunbeam reached out to caress

The soft gray breast of the bird who sang

with such a plaintive voice:

A plaintive voice,

--a  two-note sigh,

 I heard its longing

Fill the sky.

~Kathie Adams Brown (September 12, 2012)

Return to Tucson

It is so quiet here
in this desert city
under this pale blue sky
where lizards creep across my yard
drawing warmth from sun-heated stone.
I have hummingbirds in my backyard,
and pigeons overhead.
In many ways it is like any other city, yet,
it is so different too.
I have returned and I am new,
new to this part of town, this neighborhood, this house.
The desert wind that caresses my face is familiar,
and I know these lungs have breathed
the scent of creosote bush that perfumes the morning air before.
I look out to the circle of mountains surrounding this city
and I feel their embrace
as a stony hug.

Skywatch Friday: Idaho Autumn

King Mountain Autumn acrylic on canvas 1999 by Kathiesbirds

One Single Impression: Autumn

In the Big Lost River Valley
a golden mantle is
thrown across the land
with the sweet scent of drying hay,
and damp cottonwood leaves
tossed like coins along dry creek beds,
where soft amber light shimmers
on the rugged shoulders of King Mountain,
Autumn comes to Idaho as a golden event.
~Kathiesbirds (September 18, 2008)



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Visit Sycamore Canyon to view a my other Skywatch post: Raven Chasing a Redtailed Hawk

Skywatch Friday: High in the Mountains

Gardner Canyon, Sonoita, AZ 8-17-08

High in the mountains where I want to be
the morning sunlight falls on me
and casts a softly slanting light
across the meadow after night,
when dew drops twinkle in the day,
the stars of heaven fall this way.
~Kathiesbirds (July 25, 2008)

View my other Skywatch Friday post at Sycamore Canyon.

Please visit Skywatch Friday to view other photos and to submit your own.

Atmospheric Questions

(Mt. Fagan Sky July 26, 2008 Acrylic on Canvas by kathiesbirds)

Can I ever grasp this great expanse

this wide vault,

this atmosphere?

I reach to hold it to my breast,

I fling my arms towards emptiness.

Why do I want to gather it,

this wide expanse of openness?

~Kathiesbirds (July 25, 2008)

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Skywatch Friday: King Mt. Summer's Blush

(King Mountain Summer in Idaho 1999 acrylic on Canvas by Kathiesbirds)

The setting summer sun
caresses the gentle slopes
of the Lost River Range
King Mountain blushes
behind fragrant stacks of gold--
summer bales of winter sustenance

~Kathiesbirds (July 3, 2008)

Skywatch Friday is hosted by Wiggers World

Click on the link to see a monsoon sky in Sycamore Canyon

Skywatch Friday: Summer Solstice Moon

(Mt. Fagan with Summer Solstice Moonrise: pastel on paper by kathiesbirds June 2008)

A sliver of shining silver
slips from behind the stones,
the rocky, craggy, mountains,
and throws
silver light beams over the desert,
silver moon rays into the sky,
a glistening,
............glowing,
.....................moon balloon,
in a summer solstice sky.


~Kathiesbirds (June 18, 2008)
Skywatch Friday is hosted by Wigger's World
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Skywatch Friday: Idaho, My Love

King Mountain in Spring painted by Kathiesbirds 3-18-99 Acrylic on Canvas

Idaho, wild Idaho,
I long for you so much!
You are in my heart
You are in my soul,
And I desire to be in you.
What is this hold you have on me?
Why this terrible love?
You are a place, just a place,
On earth.
You draw me as a lover,
With a love I’ve never known before.
Why do I feel this need
To be immersed in You?
I want your mountains surrounding me,
Your aspen trees,
Your golden sunlight.
I want your wild-ness.
I want your rivers pouring over me,
Your wildlife running through my eyes,
I want to see eagles playing in the skies
Once again.
I want the Sandhill Cranes to dance
In pastures near the cattle,
I want to see a pelican
Fly overhead at lunch,
Or Great- Horned Owls perched
On phone poles in the morning
When I am hanging wash out to dry
With potato fields beyond.
I want to see newborn lambs
Gamboling across the landscape,
Or bald-faced calves in spring,
Curled in the pastures
When I am driving into town
On highway 93.
Idaho, my Idaho,
How I love you, love you so,
When will I return my love
To my place of being?

~Kathiesbirds (March 28, 1998, revised June 5, 2008)

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