Autumn Gold Attitude

 

You are that leaf

freshly fallen

onto the small stream.

Floating first on smooth water,

then riding the ripples

above a bed of pebbles,

then over rocks

and rising rapids

to be churned and turned

and twisted underwater.

At last settling

near a sidebank

in a festival of colors

where your

autumn gold attitude

still reflects the sun.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grand River - Knapp Street Bridge - Kent County, Michigan

2. Page Creek - Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

3. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michiagn

Banquet

Entering Townsend Park

in mid-October,

I find Sugar Maple placemats

on the picnic tables,

and accept the invitation

to dine in these

five-star accommodations.

Eager to write

a marvelous review

about the ambiance;

a feast for my eyes.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

3. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

Acceptance

 

In the quiet air of an autumn afternoon,

something seems to be asking for my attention.

Something hidden in the vacant spaces

between leaves turning from green to gold.

Waiting for confirmation,

validation, affirmation.

It could be the inscrutable presence,

the essence of the Holy Spirit.

I will offer my benevolent attendance

through a fervent prayer of acceptance.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

3. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

Reading Outdoors

 

Oh, the many benefits

of reading outdoors:

The sun shining brightly

on the pages of your book.

Tree shadows passing

over the paragraphs.

Perhaps golden leaves

landing in your lap.

A small choir of birds

singing in the background.

Or a clamorous crowd of geese

causing you to look up.

Occasional bursts of wind

turning the pages for you.

Dragonflies landing on the lines,

walking on the words.

Maybe a cool stream

trickling over your toes.

Or the sound of gentle ripples

entering your ears.

All these welcome distractions

affecting your concentration.

Causing you to get paper and pen.

Following the urge to write outdoors.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Fallasburg Park - Lowell, Michigan

2. Tassell Park - Cascade, Michigan

3. Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve - Parnell, Michigan

4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

5. SaddleBrooke - Arizona

Keepers of the Past

 

These separate words

become lines of poetry

floating across blank pages

like leaves on the river.

Paper-clipped together

to be reviewed again,

to be revised again,

released in the future.

Eventually assembled

into a discernable

current of perception.

Poets are keepers of the past

and our hope for the future.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. Grand River - Kent County - Michigan

2. Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan

3. Fallasburg Park - Lowell, Michigan

4. Cannonsburg, Michigan

Now in November

 

During the long, warm

days of summer,

you can almost hear

the trees breathing,

their pulse vigorous and strong,

reaching for the light.

Green. Growth. Growing.

Now in November,

after the long shed of leaves,

the stripped trees

seem ready for slumber,

a season of lethargy.

Dark. Cold. Bare.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Home Road

3. Home

Promise

 

A seed in the soil

is the promise of patience.

I don't mean radish seeds or beans

that kids plant in backyard gardens,

that emerge and surge into green;

flourishing by the next full moon.

Rather, acorns, hickory nuts,

samaras from maples,

hard seeds of Black Cherry.

Young saplings that will achieve

the height of the parent trees

decades after we're gone.

That's a promise.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Fallasburg Park - Lowell, Michigan

2. Wabasis Lake Park - Michigan

3. & 4. Lowell Township - Kent County - Michigan

New Purpose

 

Within the chaos

of moving branches,

autumn leaves are 

stirring in the canopy.

Sounding like

dangling conversations

with meaning

slowly waning. 

Some begin to fall.

Others will cling

to their twigs

for a few more days.

Eventually,

all will cooperate

and accumulate

on the floor of the woods

to find a new purpose.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Cannonsburg State Game Area - Kent County - Michigan

2. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. & 5. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

4. Fallasburg Park - Kent County _ Michigan

6. Vergennes Township - Kent County - Michigan

surrender

fragile flakes of gold

hovering over dark creek

soon to surrender

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Spring Creek - Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

value of gold

 "Nothing gold can stay." ~ Robert Frost

fog softens the woods

Sugar Maple leaves linger

valuable as gold

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

Released

This poem is no longer mine.
I have released it into the world,
hoping it will find a place
in someone else's mind and heart.

It now belongs
to anyone who wants it.
It's a gift.
It's for you.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. & 3. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

Saturday Morning Backroads V

 

This is the fifth in a series titled: "Saturday Morning Backroads"...

Each time I leave home, I am blessed

to drive past Bear Creek;

but I don't just drive past,

I stop to explore with my camera,

especially in the glorious month of October.

A few miles south of home,

I love to run this one-lane dirt road

especially when the Sugar Maple leaves

are falling gently upon my face and shoulders.

If I'm running "around the block",

a five-mile loop through farm country,

 I am blessed to view our beautiful church:

St. Patrick's of Parnell. 

Above the Flat River

in Fallasburg Park,

I watch a leave's last dance

and its return to the earth.

In the rural countryside,

within white fences,

I admire this centennial farmhouse,

and the thick carpet of  Sugar Maple leaves.

Golden-green veils

of Weeping Willows

frame a Mute Swan

on Big Crooked Lake.

Back home, in my own woods,

I am rewarded by the vibrant leaves

of American Beech, with green midribs,

parallel veins, and sharply acute apex.

I am blessed to live where I live;

grateful for these gifts,

to be able to drive

and run these country roads.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

 

Photo Locations:

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

2. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. St. Patrick's Church _ Parnell, Michigan

4. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

5. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

6. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

7. Big Crooked Lake - Kent County - Michigan

8. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Please view and read previous posts of "Saturday Morning Backroads":

Saturday Morning Backroads IV ~ October 19, 2015

Saturday Morning Backroads III ~ July 10, 2015

Saturday Morning Backroads II ~ October 8, 2014

Saturday Morning Backroads ~ June 6, 2012

The Voice of God

 

A soft autumn breeze

whispers through a palette of color

along the edge of the lake.

Quiet yourself.

Listen carefully.

You may hear the voice of God.

If you let yourself be still,

echoes from the past

will embrace your memory.

The Holy Spirit within

will offer, or suggest,

words of inspiration.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Pickerel Lake Park / Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County - Michigan

2. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

Skaters

Water Striders skate
in jerky strides
over the silky surface
of calmer water
along the shoulders
of the stream.

Along the inside curves,
I lean in slowly;
close enough to see
their delicate feet
dimple the surface film
of the water.

Shadow patterns
outlined in light,
form distinct 
ovals and circles
on the bottom silt. 

© 2019 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy two previous posts about Water Striders:

Striders ~ June 19, 2012

Striders II ~ June 15, 2015

Photo Locations:

1. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

2, 3, 4. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan