Snow Fog

Day after Christmas.
December meltdown.
Warm air strokes cold earth.

Snow fog

escapes from the woods,
floats over the fields,
dances with the wind.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Grattan Township - Kent County, Michigan

promise

To my Creator:

I promise to open my eyes
every day of my life
with hopeful expectation,
with gratitude for the gifts
I have been given,
and for all the days
I have been blessed
to be alive in this world.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods

2. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan 

Daylight Moon

I like to be surprised 
by  the daylight moon,

so that when I discover it,
like a circular cloud
hidden in a vast blue sky,

I'll know 
it's been 
waiting 
for me 
to 
SEE.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Cheers!

The Cardinal may be common,
but he announces dawn,
 declares dusk for us,
and remains loyal
and present
through the seasons;

raising a brood,
finding food;
even in winter,
he appears,
and reappears, calling:
"what cheer, cheer, cheer,"
or, "pretty, pretty, pretty."

while wearing
that bold red uniform
proper and suitable
for his cardinal duties.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan

Play the Cardinal call  from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Thoreau

Live in each season as it passes, ...
And resign yourself to the influences of each.
Be blown on by all the winds." 

~ Henry  David  Thoreau 

Journal - August 23, 1853

Journal Entries II

December 5, 1976                    High  30°          Low  18°      Snow =  5"

© 2012 Richard Havenga

December 5, 2012            High  26°        Low  20°     Snow =  2"

© 2012 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy Journal Entries - November 27, 2012

Photo Locations: Home Woods, Home Fields

Accumulation

As the winter wind
practices on your face,
can you feel
the rush of years
recording your days,
piling into
deep drifts
of accumulated
time?

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan

2. Kent County, Michigan

Given

What has been given
to me,
I want to give
to you:

The magnificent melody
of the Wood Thrush
singing its praise song
on a fresh morning in May. 

The purple clusters
of Lupine
thriving in the
cool Colorado rain.

The flutter of golden
aspen leaves
trembling on their twigs
in the September mountains.

The patter of raindrops
falling a second time;
from the bare twigs
to the forest floor.

Mountain rivers
swirling past Ponderosas
and rushing
between boulders.

What God has given
to me,
I now give
to you. 

© 2016 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy: "Finding Gifts" - December, 2014

Photo Locations:

1. & 4, Home Woods  (Call of the Wood Thrush )

2. South Fork, Colorado 

3. Ouray, Colorado 

5. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado  

Fragments of Poetry 19

"... the grass.

it anchors sand in place,
then names itself,
signing landscape

by bending in a gentle curve,
swaying half-circles, penning
a transitory letter..." 


from the poem: "Meditation On Creation" by Anne-Marie Oomen 
in:  Seasons of the Sleeping Bear  p.22



Photo Location: Whitefish Point Bird Observatory - Lake Superior - Paradise, Michigan 


You may also enjoy previous "Fragments"...

Fragments of Poetry 16 - September 29, 2016

Fragments of Poetry 15 - February 8, 2016

Temporary

While Willets wade
the shallow surf,

Sanderlings design
and redesign
the saturated sand,

signing their signatures
with temporary tracks,

and feeding while 
the water's receding, 

then leaving.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Sunset Beach, North Carolina

2. 3. 4. & 5. Lover's Key State Park - Bonita Springs, Florida 

patience

you, the patient one,

please count the silver jewels

on this dome of dew

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Ada Township - Kent County, Michigan

Warrior

Wading and walking
with slow stealth,
dark feet slip
into dark water;
barely a ripple,
graceful as a ballerina,

yet ready as a warrior
to thrust its spear,
to plunge with precision
at a silver minnow,
to pierce its silver scales;
or miss.

Now waiting again;
yellow eyes
intensely focused,
prepared for prey,
patient as a monk,
still as stone,
wading the wetlands,
stalking in silence,
this master of the marsh,
this fierce, feathered warrior.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Rogue River - Rockford, Michigan 

3. & 4. Eagle Lakes Park - Naples, Florida 

Settle

The wind subsides
near the end of this day.

Along the edge
of the woods,
trees settle;
their leaves whisper
good evening.

Tips of branches
bow, then rise;
bow in reverence,
rise in gratitude.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:  Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan

Temporary Jewels

A single stalk of autumn grass,
heavy with ripened seeds,
holds the temporary home
of an unknown spider.

Its meticulous labor 
performed overnight.

At dawn it becomes
the domed receptacle
for an infinite number
of minuscule particles;
radiant and brilliant,
visible vapor.

A thousand points of light.
Temporary jewels.
Memorable gifts.  

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Ada Township, Kent County, Michigan

tractor pull

geese form a union

tractor pull in Michigan

it could happen here

© 2015 Richard Havenga

The Bench

Come sit with me
on this autumn bench.
We can watch the ivy 
surrounding us
turn yellow and red.

And comment on the people
observing us, as they
enter and leave the shop.

Let us age with confidence;
and cling to each other
as the ivy clings to 
the brick wall behind us;

content with the present,
yet open to changes.

Confident in the future.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Joie de Vie ~ Antiques - Harbor Springs, Michigan 

Every October

Every October, 
sumac flames from the fencerow:
with leaves perfectly parallel,
with veins backlit by the sun,
with leaflets toothed and touched
by dynamic reds and oranges;
every tapered tip
pointing to its creator,
glowing in the grace
of a consuming fire.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

"...let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,  for our God is a consuming fire."  ~ Heb. 12: 28-29

Photo Locations:  Cannon Township, Kent County, Michigan

words continue

As time extends

through this third season,

the autumn of our days;

the sun continues

its shallow arc

across our diminishing days

winds continue

to wrestle

the leafy arms of trees;

birds continue

to ride the invisible air,

to follow known migration routes;

bees continue

to enter

the remaining autumn asters;

and words continue

to dream

of entering poems.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan 

2. & 3. Ada Township - Kent County, Michigan

Taste of Morning

I love the taste of morning,
and the warm splash
of early light
upon the fields.

And the hard work 
of the farmers
coming into fruition,
approaching harvest.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

  Photo Locations:

1. Soybeans, 2. Corn & Hay, 3. Soybeans - Lowell Township - Kent County - Michigan