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

Holy Waters

 

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

Singing To the Sky

 

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.

Opening Doors

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

Flowering Dogwoods Flowering

 

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

Vessel

 

Are you using

your time on this earth

to watch and wonder,

to wait for the next

miracle to occur

in your world?

Everyday,

you are surrounded

by the beauty and bounty in nature. 

Each day is an invitation

to give thankful praise

for God's creation.

You are a vessel  

waiting to be filled,

until it pours over with gratitude.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Shagbark Hickory - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michiga

2. Pink Lady Slipper - A Kent County Park - Michigan

3. Thistle - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

4. Santa Catalina Mountains - SaddleBrooke, Arizona

Sunshine State of Mind

Good morning Brown Pelicans

plunging into the gulf.

Hello turquoise ocean

and the clattering

leaves of palms.

Hello tropical waters,

welcoming me again

to a sunshine state of mind.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Sanibel Island, Florida

3. Fort Myers, Florida

4. Vero Beach, Florida

 

alpaca

 

good morning to you

time to eat some tasty grass

from my green pastures

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Grand Traverse County - Michigan

Slow Dance With Green

 

April and May

in Michigan:

a slow dance with green.

First the early wildflowers

emerge from warming soil.

Then the understory

fills with Honeysuckle

and Black Cherry saplings.

Along the edge of the woods,

Redbud and Flowering Dogwood.

Finally, in the canopy,

occupying oaks

produce a profusion

of buds swelling into leaves,

inviting migrating warblers

to lunch in their twigs.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Trout Lilies -  Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Honeysuckle - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Flowering Dogwood - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

4. Red Oak canopy - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

5. Chestnut-sided Warbler - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan