SOUTHWEST: Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah
Growing up in Baltimore, I loved our vacations at the Atlantic Ocean,
Chesapeake Bay, and Magothy River. Then for many years, I lived in Arizona
and enjoyed hiking and exploring canyons and backroads of the Southwest.
When the desert heat became too much, the presence of water became irresistible
and I moved to Western Washington where there is water, water, everywhere!

Mogollon Rim

AFTERNOON NAP MOGOLLON RIM Awakening on pine needles, comforted by filtered sun, warm serape. Voluptuous boulders crowning, breezy lullabies drift down. Bird watchers paradise under cottony clouds weathered ponderosa. Songs, calls, wood tapping, white shoulders, red breast, yellow finch. June bugs buzzing, snapping, like electric power lines in September. —Kathryn Keve

(c)(p) Mission San Juan Capistrano	(c)(p) Kodachrome Canyon, UT	(c) Arizona Canal, Phoenix
Century Plant Macro Posterized	Prickly Pear Variety (da)	Century Plant Closeup Posterized
Prickly Pear with Fruit(da)	AZ Sunset	Saguaro, Carefree
Boyce Thompson Arboretum View(da)	Boyce Thompson Arboretum	Boyce Thompson Arboretum Bell(da)
Canyon Lake Mood	Staghorn & Saguaro in Bloom	Cactus Wrens
Superstitions	Lost Dutchman State Park	Superstitions: Clouds
Superstition Spring	Peralta Road	Weavers Needle
Grand Canyon Clouds	Grand Canyon View	Grand Canyon
(c) (p) Still Water	San Franciso Peaks	Bear Canyon Lake, AZ
Cactus Berries, AZ	(p) Keet Seel, AZ	Staghorn Cactus, AZ
(p) Pigeon Point, CA	California Fog	Two Trees, CA
Red School House, CA	Salton Sea, CA	(c)(p) Black Jaguar Cat Eyes the Bluebird of Happiness
(c)(p) Rocky Mt. Cabin, CO	(p) Farm near Lake City, CO	(p) Ranch on the Rio Grande, CO
Henry Mountain, UT	Utah Wash	Utah Farm

DESERT SPRING
Luscious leisurely spring sparks Irish greens,
yellow shoulders of desert sunflowers, golden slopes of poppies.

Softer choirs of purple lupine and wild heliotrope
brightened by bursts of fuchsia hedgehogs.
Chaparral shining in the sun.
A desert chorale in tones of bloodstone, obsidian, and jasper.

Gila woodpeckers announce spring across the valley
in full-throated vibratos.
Courting quail call as they flurry before horses and hikers.

Rain and more rain has Bartlett Lake brimming.
An April full moon slathers rippling water
with silver and bronze silk.
Sky and water.

Four-wheel driving, we stop, sit, and eat, taking in the moon.

Do I believe in signs?
Vultures near Four Peaks soar overhead
as they inspect the glow of my new coral Amigo.
I find three lucky pennies.
Do we get to choose?

Life is a gift; endings are certain.
We decide how to live.

Flowers blooming until spent, fed by rain, sun,
more rain and more sun.
Cactus blossoms pushing—ready to burst open,
transitions, letting go.
Down to the Vishnu schist.

Reading the signs...
Ripe for renewal
Permission to bloom
Sing my song

If you're an artist in your soul,
every day you don't paint,
you are a day closer to the end...

—Kathryn Keve

© 2009 Kathryn Keve
All photographs, images and poetry appearing on this website are the property of Kathryn Keve.
They are protected by United States copyright laws and are not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Kathryn Keve.