I recently spent a week vacationing in Phoenix, Arizona. The blue skies, warm breezes, and time with friends was everything I could have asked for in a vacation. One of the days we spent at Montezuma’s Castle National Monument. This treasure boasts one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. It was a wonder to gaze at the ruins and imagine the lives of the Sinagua who inhabited the area for 300 years.
Montezuma’s Castle
Gaze on ancient ruins
amid white Arizona sycamores.
Cliff dwellings
of a resourceful people
beneath an azure sky.
A story of desert survival
inspiring imagination.
Matt Forrest Esenwine has the round up today at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme. Be sure to check it out!
Imagine the Possibilities 
Thank you for your poem! I fell in love with those AZ white sycamores when my husband and I were there earlier this year. Beautiful!
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Thanks, Irene. Yes, they are beautiful.
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So full of beautiful imagery! Well done, Rose.
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Thank you, Matt.
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Rose, your poem spoke to me and reminded me of my early years of standing on top of an ancient ruin. I have never been to Arizona so your poem brought me there.
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Thanks, Carol. I appreciate your thoughts.
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Love your poem! I’ve been there years ago and found the site inspiring and beautiful. Thanks for reminding me.
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Glad we decided to visit.
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I have been to AZ just once and would love to go back. Thanks for this lovely reminder.
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Yes, Arizona is beautiful.
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When one is near one of those dwellings, we do imagine the lives so long ago. You’ve brought that experience out beautifully, Rose.
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Thanks, Linda.
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Rose, I love the spareness of your poem, and the contrast of the specific imagery with the abstract concepts of survival and imagination. I had to go look up the trees. Wow.
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Thanks, Laura. I tried to comment on your post this morning but I think I am being blocked. At least it didn’t seem to register.
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Oh, I could see the sycamores and practically smell the dry, sandstone and sage air!
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Thanks, Marylee!
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I have a granddaughter in Phoenix and have spent time there visiting her every year. I have never heard of Montezuma’s Castle.Your poem makes me want to go looking for it.
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Oooh — I’m off to look for a photograph of a white Arizona sycamore. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.
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Sounds like a wonderful trip. I have grand intentions of visiting the West someday. I’m intrigued by Montezuma’s Castle, which I’ve never heard of, and I’m also curious about those white sycamores. Such a sense of place you’ve captured in your poem!
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