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
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
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
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
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
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
listen to them sing
American Goldfinches
musical chatter
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Location: Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
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
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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.
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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
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
My words do not
crash from the clouds
and rumble like thunder
echoing in the atmosphere.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
This is a hallowed land.
A sacred place,
consecrated by
the holy waters
of this mountain stream.
Where words rush by
in mystical motion.
Incomprehensible.
Inscrutable,
yet profound.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Location: Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado
You're out here with purpose.
Walking through your own woods,
to witness these spring-loving birds
returning to their home territories,
or just passing through
on their northern migration.
It's just another reason
you love the month of May.
To listen to the songbirds
and the warblers
singing to each other,
singing to the sky.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Scarlet Tanager - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Bay-breasted Warbler - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan.
3. Black and White Warbler - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan.
Let me
open the door for you;
and together,
with me here in the present,
and you out there
in the future,
we can communicate
and appreciate
the beauty of nature;
God's magnificent creation,
as we sail
through our separate
and sublime
seasons of life.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. St. Elmo, Colorado
2. DuBois, Wyoming
3. Fountain, Colorado
From a distance,
they are splendid in the spring.
These lovely understory trees
featuring delicate blossoms
with pure white sepals.
And close-up, they offer
an elaborate view
of their intricacies.
Protruding from the borders
of hardwoods in May,
in Michigan;
Flowering
Dogwoods
flowering.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations: Kent County - Michigan
