Small Things

 

Small things collected

from ordinary days:

The lavender softness

of Wild Geraniums

unfurling their

five-petaled dresses.

The exuberant call

of the first

Brown Thrasher

in mid-spring.

Fresh fawns

standing still

as statues

in deep grass.

Red Oak buds

becoming baby leaves

misted with

morning dew.

A delicate blossom

of Mayapple nodding

from the forked stem

below umbrella leaves.

The common 

Cabbage Butterfly

resting on tender petals

of Sulfur Cinquefoil.

The gradual pinking

of evening light

reflected on the slow

flowing Grand River.

The anticipated arrival

of familiar constellations;

especially Orion

and his girlfriend Cassiopeia.

Magnificent things collected

from extraordinary days.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Wild Geranium - Home Woods

2. Brown Thrasher - Home Woods

3. White-tailed Deer Fawns - Home Woods

4. "Baby" Red Oak leaves - Home Woods

5. Mayapple blossom - Home Woods

6. Cabbage Butterfly & Sulfur Cinquefoil - Home Fields

7. Grand River - Plainfield Township - Kent County - Michigan

8. Orion - Catalina, Arizona

Orion and Cassiopeia

On this cold, clear night
ten thousand stars burn overhead.

It's ten degrees and getting colder,
but this older man who feels young
stays outside long enough
to find his favorite constellations:
Orion and Cassiopeia;
dependable and constant,
light years apart.

Coming into the house,
he decides to warm his wife
with a January fire, with firewood
he cut, split, and stacked last October,
when the woods were aflame with color,
and time was burning fast.

Flames grow in the fireplace,
sparks rise like a constellation,
and passion returns to burn
on this cold clear night.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home

Midnight Stage

Try to measure the great gaps
between the stars;
the width, the depth of the universe.

Within this eternal theater,
the black curtain of night
reveals familiar constellations.

Orion and Cassiopeia,
accent these winter skies
on this calm, cold night.

You are invited to watch 
the silent performance 
of ten-thousand stars 
burning on this midnight stage.

© 2015 Richard Havenga