Consolation of Rivers

 

I am immensely comforted

by the consolation of rivers.

Wild water flowing freely.

Rapids cradled between mountains.

Water rushing with gravity,

bashing broad boulders

to create whitewater rapids

that pound on my ear drums.

Rivers carrying time,

endlessly into the future.

Washing my words

with exhilaration.

The current singing

the song of my life.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. North Fork Payette River - Idaho

2. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

3. Gibbon Falls - Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

 

Sun Play

 

Sun plays with the clouds,

splashing dramatic light

through the lovely morning sky,

captivating your sight.

Sending rays of hope

from heaven to earth,

and you're out here

getting your minute's worth.

© 2026 Richard Havenga 

Photo Locations:

1. Loveland, Colorado

2. Saguache, Colorado

Singing Water

 

Water is content, flowing along

quietly, in wide, slow rivers,

but it remembers its youth,

and how it loved to sing.

First, trickling over stones,

later dancing with boulders.

Pouring down the shoulders of mountains,

respecting gravity, gathering in the valleys.

Exuberant in its voice,

joyful in its journey.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Snake River - Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

2. Grand River - Kent County - Michigan

3. Middle Fork Flathead River - Glacier National Park

4. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

5. Payette River - Idaho

Singing to the Sky

 

A small Canyon Wren

is singing to the big sky.

One long song

woven into the western air.

Singing with exuberance,

a sacred sound cascading down.

Clear notes bursting

from this small brown bird.

Ascending, descending,

echoing off smooth rock walls.

I hold my breath, close my eyes,

feel blessed to be a witness.

Years later it lingers

in the canyons of my memory.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Breathe

 

My hope in writing,

is that the lines

in some of my poems

may breathe with insight.

Inhaling inspiration.

Exhaling satisfaction.

A discernable voice.

A distinctive vision.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

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

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 

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

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

Watching and Waiting

 

I approach this mountain stream

with deep respect and admiration.

Walking upstream,

along the boulder-strewn bank,

accented with spruce

and Ponderosa Pines.

The sound of rushing water

is like a friend coming toward me;

it flows with companionship,

that I currently need more of.

I keep watching and waiting,

until it's time to move on.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Payette River - McCall, Idaho

2.  Elk River - Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Sage Crush

 

My legs brush the sage

hanging over the trail.

I crush the pale green leaves

and rub them between my hands.

Inhale the masculine scent

that blankets these high plains.

Continue along this trail

that rises with the foothills.

The higher mountains beyond,

remain always in view.

While following the path

scented with sage.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. & 2. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

3. San Juan National Forest - Colorado

Yutori

When we decide to slow down,

to leave the phone at home,

and go outdoors to engage in

intentional listening,

we will be practicing

the concept of yutori.

And we will be rewarded

as we contemplate

our life space,

and express gratitude to God

for our experiences outdoors.

A soft breeze whispering through

the fine needles of White Pine.

Birdsong streaming from

the density of green woods.

The rapids of a mountain stream

rushing over rocks, splashing boulders.

The faint chirp of crickets

on a late summer evening.

Gifts we can give ourselves.

When we decide to listen.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. White Pine - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Indigo Bunting - Cannonsburg State Game Area - Kent County - Michigan

3. Taylor River - Gunnison County - Colorado

Out Here

 

Even clean air,

seen through many miles,

like in western Wyoming,

or the Colorado Rockies,

can haze the distant mountains.

I am out here, attentive,

wrapped in time's presence.

Ready for an elk sighting,

a moose in a lake,

or a distant meadowlark

making music 

from his throne

on a wooden fencepost.

In between the meadowlark's calls,

in the space between mountains,

God speaks in silence.

I am out here.

Listening.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

2. Telluride, Colorado

3. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

4. & 5. Mancos, Colorado

The Poetry of Water

 

It's difficult to translate

the meaning of words

the mountain stream carries

as it hurries through the canyon;

bashing big boulders,

splashing through the rapids.

Elsewhere, the poetry of water slows

and swirls into clear pools;

transparent with nuance,

tranquil with meaning.

I kneel for a closer look.

Fine grasses and golden sky light 

reflect on the smooth surface.

Through the clear lens of water

I examine the bottom of the pool

and read in the rippled sand

the words collected there:

Slow down. Be still.

Observe the smallest

contours of creation.

But this poem 

does not end

here.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

2. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

3. Santa Catalina Mountains - Arizona

 

 

Tracks

I returned to the boot tracks
I left in the snowfield
the day before yesterday.

Today, they contained tiny seeds
from Mullein and Evening Primrose,
blown in by the winter wind.

Today, a batch of Horned Larks
and Dark-eyed Juncos
are feeding in the trough of my tracks.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Kent County - Michigan

3. Buena Vista, Colorado

4. Madera Canyon - Arizona

After She Left

 

Dusk sneaks up on me,

creeps onto these pages

I'm trying to read

from Donald Hall's poetry.

His wife, poet Jane Kenyon, is dying.

Their future together looks dark;

but their love is a bright fire

burning with intensity.

He promises to keep

the remaining embers

glowing forever

in his plaintive heart.

So he wrote letters to her,

and wrote poems about her,

for many years

after she left.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

 

Photo Locations:

1. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Lafayette, Colorado

Solvitur Ambulando

 

When the tensions of your life,

and the troubles of our world

begin to overwhelm your mind

and dominate your thoughts,

stop the mental talk

and take a long, brisk walk.

Solvitur ambulando*

It can be solved while walking.

*St. Augustine

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Glacier National Park - Montana

2. Great Sand Dunes National Park - Colorado

Patient Pioneers

 

Along the boulder's

curving roundness,

circular splotches of lichen

cling tightly to the hardness.

Existing and persisting

for possibly a hundred years.

Weathering the rocks,

penetrating the pores.

Patient pioneers;

crustose creating

colonies of color.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor, Maine

2. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

3. Grand Mesa, Colorado