Memorial Day ~ 2021

 

With honor, and with sincere respect

for their supreme sacrifice;

their lives for our freedom. ~ RH

Photo Location:

Santa Fe National Cemetery

This Could Be Yours

 

When spring birdsong

begins to escalate

an hour after dawn,

you could be there to

appreciate the chorus.

When the calm morning

rises into a soft breeze

just enough to bend the reeds,

you could feel it

upon your skin.

When the sun

penetrates the canopy

and brightens the forest floor,

you could find a place to sit,

give thanks and meditate.

When the serenity you experience

lasts as long as you can stay,

you could take the light with you;

carry it along your path, to others,

like a treasured, transparent gift.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

 

Photo Locations:

1. Indigo Bunting ~ Cannonsburg State Game Area - Kent County - Michigan

2. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

3. & 4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

place

 

coated with duckweed

turtles seek spot on a log

a place in the sun

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Flat River - Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

Temple of Praise

From deep within the temple

of this elusive bird's breast,

these liquid notes spill forth

under the canopy of woods.

Shaping a memory of music,

sounding like a holy hymn.

The song of the Wood Thrush
sung in the temple of praise,

fills a chalice of  thanksgiving,
and my gratitude for this grace.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy: "Song of Grace" ~ May 21, 2014

Photo Location: Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Wood Thrush songs & call from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Pleats

The greening

wrinkled pleats

of emerging leaves

are being smoothed out

by the slanted sleeves

of spring sunlight. 

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

American Beech (Fagus Grandifolia) Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Watercolor Dreams

 

After a full day of spring Birding,

of looking through binoculars,

and reading field guides,

birds fly through the

watercolor of my dreams.

I awake the next morning,

eager with anticipation,

to see the next new migrants,

perhaps a "life-lister" species.

Mid-May in Michigan.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Scarlet Tanager ~ Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Northern Oriole ~ Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Prothonotary Warbler ~ Allegan State Game Area - Allegn, Michigan

green umbrella

 

look before you step

this little green umbrella

is found near the ground

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

Mayapple leaf & blossom- Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

The Embrace

 

In the understory,

long-reaching twigs

are still dripping at dawn

after a six-hour rain.

Stout trunks of Red Oak

with fissured bark

wear splotches of lichen,

still moist with pale greens.

Migrating wood warblers

flit about the canopy; 

resume their feeding frenzy

on insects I cannot see.

Flowering Dogwoods'

cross-shaped blossoms

spread pure white

over a bluing sky.

After April's cool reception,

May has arrived offering pleasures.

She is desirable. 

I embrace her. 

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Cape May Warbler - Cannonsburg State Game Area - Kent County - Michigan

4. Grand Rapids Township - Kent County - Michigan

Meadowlark Music

When, in early May,
I listened to the meadowlark
sing into the morning,

I attempted,
with humility,
to bring a few words
together.

Whether from want,
or need,
I cannot say for sure.

But the words rubbed
together
like the sound
of a dead red oak trunk
leaning on another
high overhead;
back and forth,
shrieking or moaning
in the canopy of wind.

Using mere tools
of language,
it fell short
of becoming a poem;
unable to compete
with the clear, pure notes
of the meadowlark's music.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Kline, Colorado

2. Hereford, Arizona

3. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan