Select Poems Written by Veteran Tim Whalen, Part 2

Huts for Vets
Like the lines of white crosses
In Arlington,
And so many other places,
My tears fall for my dead
Onto a pine floor in a cabin
10,000 feet above the sea,
And their desert graves.

Plum Blossoms, Santa fe
Sitting outside in the
Evening’s cool light
Reading Dogen’s Plum Blossoms.
No plum blossoms
Here,
Just distant pine covered hills
Washed in golden sun setting color.
Single trees against the sky
Instead of snow.
Or are there?
Whalen, 4/16/19
 
 
Sandia Mountains
 
Sunset hued ridges,
Soft looking forest fire smoke hillsides,
Wrap a purple-gray heart shroud
Around my dead.
In memoriam: Chad, Mike, Brad, Fergie, Mike, Tony.
 
De Oppresso Liber!

 

Seasonal Understanding

Sadly lonely aspen
Silhouetted on top a distant ridge.
Suddenly!
I don’t feel so alone.
Whalen, September, 2019

Colonel Tim Whalen (retired) served as a U.S. Army Special Forces officer (Green Beret) with service in Afghanistan soon after 9/11. In 2003, injuries ended his 23 year career. Subsequently he has pursued graduate studies in the Liberal Arts and Eastern Classics and helped other veterans with their post-war adjustments. Tim has decades of experience in leadership, mentoring, training, outdoor activities, and risk management.  Since retiring, he has mentored veterans, tutored young children in reading and earned a classical text-based masters degree in the Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM.