Before and After

I am beginning a new series titled "Before and After". I will display a variety of wildflowers, trees, and plants in various stages of their lives, through the seasons. Look for more Before and After throughout the year.

Burreed

  

 Queen Anne's Lace 

Common Milkweed



Plutarch

Click on photo to enlarge.

Photo Location:

Sunset Beach,  North Carolina

Poetry of Plants

A large portion of my work deals with the intricacies of nature; particularly the unique, often overlooked  details of wildflowers and common plants of the forests and fields, wetlands and meadows. You  have read many short lessons in Botany here at WWFN. You have witnessed my observations turned into poems.

The "Poetry of Plants"  is a collection of some of my poems, selected for this theme.

Click on the link below each photo to see the nominations, and to read them in their entirety. Then return to this list for more. Or, you could read one a day, for five days. 

For recent viewers, these may be new to you. For loyal followers, it's a look back.

I hope you enjoy the selections I've chosen for this short anthology called:

"Poetry of Plants"

grandifolia

 October 18, 2012

  

  grandifolia

Tranquil

July 10, 2012

  Tranquil

The Baptism

May 16, 2013

 

 The Baptism

Lichen on Lava

December 5, 2012

  Lichen on Lava

Photo Haiku - Tree Series 2

May 2, 2012

Photo Haiku - Tree Series 2 

Click on photos to enlarge.

Plants are identified in each post.

Photo Locations are described in each post.




The River Dancing

The river keeps flowing by,

whispering under the stars,

murmuring under the sun,

carrying within its cold current 

words to songs impossible to write.

The Blackfoot River;

bouncing between boulders,

winding by willows,

pushing past pines.

The purity of river music

would be diminished by words,

so I  linger on the riverbank,

grateful for the gift of time,

witnessing the water

swirling with poetry.

Art in perpetual motion.

Time flowing forward. 

Water dancing with the land.

© 2014  Richard Havenga 



You may also enjoy: The River Singing  September 17, 2012

Photo Location: 

Blackfoot River,  (Blackfoot)  Missoula,  (Missoula)  Montana  (Montana)

Moon Shadows

Black tree shadows
cast by winter's moon,
strike sharp outlines
on bright snow crust.

As moon travels westward,
moon shadows
grow eastward,
lengthening toward dawn.

On this night walk

through winter woods,

I listen...

for voices in the stars.

©  2013  Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Home Woods -  Cannonsburg,  Michigan



Fragments of Poetry 11

"The Wild Rose"  by Wendell Berry

Sometimes hidden from me
in daily custom and trust,
so that I live by you unaware
as by the beating of my heart,

suddenly you flare in my sight,
a wild rose blooming at the edge
of thicket, grace and light
where yesterday was only shade,

and once more I am blessed, choosing
again what I chose before.

This post is dedicated to my loving wife, Mary.

The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry  ©  1998


Photo Location:

Kent County,  Michigan

Wild Rose/Swamp Rose - Rosa palustris

Gates of Heaven

(Dance of the Sun Dogs)

As this brilliant winter morning unfolds,

a veil, woven with infinite, intricate ice crystals

hangs suspended in the glare of white sun,

shimmering, appearing like an angel.
 

Sharp shadows accent

the purity of snow

filling this frigid field.

Sun Dogs dance in transforming light.

Parentheses rise, curved on the horizon

to frame this fleeting moment,

to carry my worship offering.

Luminous warmth within,

enhances the glow

of this radiant gesture.

The Spirit penetrates my  soul.

A prayer of gratitude ascending;

bursting with astonished praise,

approaching the gates of Heaven.

© 2014  Richard Havenga

 



Photo Location:

Parnell,  (St. Patrick's - Parnell) Kent County,  Michigan



 



At the Edge

Spending your days
finding food.
Your one true vocation.
Surviving.

Thriving
at the edge of the sea
where humans long to be
on their short vacations.

You walk daily in this place
along the tapered, sandy shore,
gleaning the thin skim of water,
where continents greet oceans.

Your spindly legs
running past,
running fast.
Legs an intermittent blur;
a cartoon-like whir.

Zigzagging

back and forth,

along the froth,

patrolling the line of foam

for fresh organisms;

rolling in,

rolling in

again.

©  2014  Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 3.  Sunset Beach, North Carolina (N.C.)

2. 4. & 5.  Point Reyes National Seashore, (Point Reyes) California

Click on photos to enlarge.

Willet - Catoptrophorus semipalmatus



Name the Colors

Name the color of:

Hepatica petals; soft and freshly opened in early May sunshine.

Forget-me-nots; flourishing in cold water springs on a June morning.

Wild Lupine; thriving in July, high in the Colorado Rockies.

Wild Grapes; plentiful and ripening in September after their leaves have fallen.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Photo Locations:

1. & 2.  Townsend Park,  Kent County,  Michigan

5. & 6.  Crested Butte, Colorado

3, 4, 7, & 8  Wabasis Lake Park,  Kent County,  Michigan

Round-lobed Hepatica - Hepatica Americana

Forget-me-not -  Myosotis scorpioides

Silvery Lupine - Lupinus argenteus

Wild Grape - Vitis sp.