Yellow Notes

 

This handsome yellow bird,

accented with a black cap,

black wings and tail,

swoops across the summer sky

in shallow arches;

an undulating flight between the trees.

Singing yellow notes

of freedom

into the blue sky.

Until it comes down to earth

to feed on the seeds 

of flowers.

American Goldfinch.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Roselle Park - Ada Township - Kent County - Michigan

Pearls

 

A gauze of fog

softens the dawn.

Microscopic droplets

collect on the web.

Threads of silk.

Strings of pearls.

Making the invisible

visible.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: 

Oxbow Bend ~ Snake River - Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

Let's Paint

 

Let's paint these walls

the color of Wyoming sage

thriving on the Antelope Flats

of Grand Teton National Park.

Let's carpet these floors

the color of fresh green moss

velveting rounded rocks

in this Michigan trout stream.

Let's paint these ceilings

the color of pure blue skies

rising above the Colorado

Rocky Mountains.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

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

3. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

Ocean Lyrics

 

These unrelenting waves

surge over the sandbar,

then swish and hiss

upon the sloping shore;

repeating the ocean's lyrics

in a pulsating presence:

now,

now,

now...

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Pacific Ocean ~ Oregon Coast

2. Pacific Ocean ~ Carmel-by-the-Sea, California  

 

  

Golden Trumpets

 

During the pearly light of dawn,

I thought I heard the sun

announce its imminent approach

just below the eastern horizon.

It began as a soft murmur

in subdued tints of rosy gray,

reflecting off the cold waves

of Lake Superior.

Then the sun flared into sudden sight,

and golden trumpets played the new day.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Lake Superior - Paradise, Michigan

2. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

 

Harvest of Days

 

From the fertile fields of time

comes a bountiful harvest of days.

Clouds like linen may lay

on a bed of blue sky.

Or a thick, gray overcast

will shed sheets of rain.

Or a brilliant rainbow

may arc in the clouds,

bringing the promise

of a brighter tomorrow.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Perplexity of Dreams

 

Meteorologists call them

Fair Weather Cumulus.

Poets see a fleet of small ships

sailing on an ocean of sky.

Small paragraphs of thought

to entertain your brain.

White pillows to rest your head.

Cushions that accumulate, dissipate.

Like the transient

perplexity of dreams.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

 

Photo Locations: Home Skies - Cannonsburg, Michigan

 

 

 

Pool of Poetry

 

My pen is poised

over this yellow pad

like a heron's beak

above the river's surface.

Ready to plunge

for a choice word

swimming in the dark water.

Probing the possibilities,

within the pool of poetry.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. North Fort Myers, Florida

2. Rogue River - Rockford, Michigan

Daystars

 

I'm walking in a fallow field

filled with the soft faces

of Queen Anne's Laces.

These flat-topped umbels,

are white daystars

of circling galaxies.

Sweet summer's

gathering of grace.

Growing with dignity

in common green fields.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Senses

 

Can you taste

the salty water on your lips

while being thrashed by Atlantic waves?

Or smell the freshness

of spring soil

during an April rain shower?

Can you see diamonds

in the morning dew

sparkling on blades of grass?

Or hear the

melody of the Wood Thrush

singing from his secret woods?

Can you feel the gifts

placed all around you,

waiting for your discovery?

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Sunset Beach, North Carolina

2. Lee County - Illinois

3. Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Translator

 

How to become a translator

of the language

of moving water:

Be out there, listening,

with ears that hear,

and a feeling of gratitude.

Understand that it cannot

be interpreted using mere words;

but expressed only with

a receptive heart

and a grateful awareness

of your current blessings.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

2. Payette River - Idaho 

chatter

 

listen to them sing

American Goldfinches

musical chatter

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Rising at 3 a.m.

 

I didn't know the moon

was right there, right then;

until the obscuring cloud

drifted to the east.

This was my greeting

through the bedroom window.

Waning, and rising

at three a.m.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Sky - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Sweet Peas for My Wife

 

After 55 years,

he was still bringing

wildflowers to his wife.

He would stop along

the side of the road

on the way home.

Always with a 

hand pruner 

in the car.

This time,

in late June,

it was Sweet Peas;

an endearing name

she sometimes

used for him.

She arranged them

in an antique vase

and sweetly said:

"Thank you Sweet Pea!"

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. 2. 3. 4. Ada Township - Kent County - Michigan

5. Home - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Four Horses

 

These four horses' asses

that were grazing on grasses

now ignore the photographer

who's not offended

who likes the contrast

of browns and blacks

against the pale green sage

in the rolling summer hills

above the aspen grove

below the blue-gray clouds

east of the Grand Tetons

in northwest Wyoming.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Gros Ventre Road - Kelly, Wyoming

Quiet Hope

 

My words do not

crash from the clouds

and rumble like thunder

echoing in the atmosphere.

My words arrive silently;

like the sound of petals

curling open to reveal

the essence of the flower.

Like the soundless rise

of the morning sun

birthing a new day

with the soft music of poetry.

Silent treasures

brought into the light of today.

Carrying the quiet hope

of one more tomorrow.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. 3. Balloon Flower -Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

 

Shallowing Waves

 

I am mesmerized,

hypnotized by the ensemble

of dark, mellowing light

on the shallowing waves

of Lake Michigan

as they slide gently

upon the shore;

colors fading into subtle

as the day calms

into evening.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Grand Haven State Park - Michigan

Irreplaceable

 

It usually takes

only a few good words

to get a poem started.

Maybe an old photograph

from the archives of time;

black and white memories.

Photos I can pinpoint

on the map of my mind,

the irreplaceable ones.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Harlem, Montana

Gray

The Gray Catbird

begins his daily report

while hidden

in the twigs

of this leafy spring.

 

Occasionally,

he nudges out to the edges

of the dense brush,

where we can admire

his dark, rich gray,

and his narrow

black beret.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Distance

There are seventy-five years

of distance between me,

and the black and white photograph 

of a little boy on a rope swing.

My father, Richard,

made this rope swing;

tied to a high tree branch,

sturdy and strong like he was.

My mother, Lillian,

who took the photo in 1951,

said I was a shy and quiet little boy.

I would like to get

inside his head.

I would like 

to give him a push.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Ada Township - Kent County - Michigan

Aria

 

At the front edge of dawn,

on this morning in May,

a chorus of birdsong

reaches my grateful ears;

becomes an aria

to start my day.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. Prothonotary Warbler - Kalamazoo River - Allegan State Game Area - Michigan

2. Bobolink - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

Gold and Silver

 

Dawn is a gift,

given to you

every day.

A gift you can open

each morning

you find yourself alive.

A new day,

golden with opportunity,

silver with possibility.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Lowell Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

Attention

 

At such a great distance,

the stars seem indifferent.

But the yellow moon rising

feels close, like a friend

who wants

your attention.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: 

Crooked Lake - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

Alive

 

These poems I write

don't just exist in the mist.

They're not merely collections

of reflections orbiting on the internet.

They are alive, and speak

with a voice you can hear.

Contain a robust curiosity.

An investment in creativity.

A place you can enter

again and again.

Meet in particular places.

Like friends coming together.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. 3. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan