Granada Park Love by Don Kingfisher Campbell

Granada Park Love
by Don Kingfisher Campbell

My life has been a series of trees planted in soil
One has purple flowers now
Amidst the abandoned Stonehenge picnic area of my past
Columns rise but there is no roof, no shelter
A tall tree has found its hugger
A lone lamp in a green field
The only pathway surrounded by other arranged arbors
Sun shines on their leaves
An old crown, a monument to age
Young sprouts admire the view upward
She stands waiting to be photographed
Laughs because a bench to rest upon has been discovered
White wisps in the sky signal fleeting time
Light fills dark structures
Trash can tagged and documented
Flowers ignite red, orange, lavender, and magenta
The blue welkin is streaked with feeling
Palms reach for each other
Yellow beacons spark home
Distant city lives its own lives
A single trunk tries to tell its story
Scattered needles on the ground
A belt of sunlight turns the evening
As a plane splits through the void
The Cube has brought us here reflecting hues
Branches lose color in the night
Yet there is a smile on my face
Next to the dear honey of this day’s glaze

PHOTO: Granada Park, 2000 W Hellman Ave, Alhambra, California, 91803. Photo © Bryan Zhang, All Rights Reserved.

NOTE: Alhambra is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately eight miles from downtown Los Angeles. As of the 2010 census, the population was 83,089. During the early 1800s, Bernardo Yorba named the land he owned as “Alhambra,” after a book his daughter Ruth was reading, Washington Irving‘s Tales of the Alhambra, which the author wrote after an his extended visit to the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. Alhambra was founded as a suburb of Los Angeles, originally promoted as a “city of homes,” and many of its dwellings have historical significance, with 26 residential areas designated as historic neighborhoods. Alhambra has experienced waves of new immigrants, beginning with Italians in the 1950s, Mexicans in the 1960s, and Chinese in the 1980s. An active Chinese business district has developed on Valley Boulevard, including Chinese supermarkets, restaurants, shops, banks, realtors, and medical offices.

PHOTO: Arch located at Valley Boulevard and Fremont Avenue representing Alhambra, California, as the “Gateway to the San Gabriel Valley.” The San Gabriel Mountains appear in the background. The 26-foot arch, modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was designed by Lawrence Moss and installed in 2010. Photo by Chon Kit Leong, used by permission. 

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Granada Park is a local neighborhood park on a hill with a wonderful view of surrounding cities.

PHOTO: The author’s fiancée hugging a tree in Granada Park, Alhambra, California. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 36 years, been a coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops, Los Angeles Area Coordinator and Board Member of California Poets In The Schools, poetry editor of the Angel City Review, publisher of Spectrum and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops, organizer of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits,  visit dkc1031.blogspot.com.