Cottonwood

Still glossy
with moisture,
unfurling from
recent birth.

The blade is distinctly veined,
the margin conspicuously toothed.

Cottonwood leaves
flap on flattened petioles,
shiver in the slightest
breath of breeze.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: 

1, 2, & 3.  Pickerel Lake Park ~ Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County, Michigan

4. Luton Park - Kent County - Michigan

Lake Music

Listen
to the song
of these soft 
summer showers.

Can you hear
the lake
make music 
with the rain?

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

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

2. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

Silent Impression

The summer clouds
undulate on the lake,

inverting the scene,
enhancing the view;

focusing my vision
on this silent impression.

Contours of creation
recognized and respected.

The possibilities of language
carry quiet significance.

Aesthetic pleasure provided,
artistic satisfaction accepted.

I am blessed with 
this moment of privilege.

The Creator is pleased
when we notice.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

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

2. McCarthy Lake - Kent County, Michigan

Reading the River

The steady pull of the river
carries you toward the future,
proposing your purpose;

dropping the residue of regret,
now accumulating unseen
in the silt of the riverbed.

Rounded wrinkles swirl on the surface;
appearing and disappearing.

The fluid edges of light
bending blue and gold.

Like opportunities for change
sliding over the smooth current
of the present.

Slowing down, 
taking some time
to see what else

the river may bring. 

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Pickerel Lake Park ~ Fred Meijer Nature Preserve

watercolor willow

soft greens and yellows 

this watercolor willow

washed warm by the sun

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Pickerel Lake Park / Fred Meijer Nature Preserve

The Ripening

The wind rattles long rows of corn.
Deep green flags flailing in the fields. 

Bobolinks appear,
disappear in deep grass.

Roadside wildflowers stretch for the sun;
measure the ripening of summer. 

Great mounds of cumulus
shifting shape and size.

Wind leaves its tracks
on the surface of the lake.

My schedule is based on
what's going on outside;

and my creativity has the
entire sky to fly through,

whether blue or gray,
sunshine or rain, 

combing the fields and woods,
scanning the lakes and streams.

I am out here.
Please join me.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. Grattan Township - Kent County, Michigan 

2. Luton Park - Kent County, Michigan

3. Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County, Michigan

4. Reeds Lake - East Grand Rapids, Michigan

5. Grand River - Knapp Street bridge - Ada, Michigan 

Cardinal Flower

beauty in excess

an intensity of red

this queen of the shade

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Pickerel Lake Park / Fred Meijer Nature Preserve (Meijer) - Kent County, Michigan

Embracing Summer

cumulo-stratus
boats in the sky

windless afternoon
leaves unmoving

cicadas' buzz electric
in mid-August heat

gifts of water lilies
sprawl over lake's edge

this hoped-for day
bathed in white light

embracing the summer
that you longed for

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grattan Township, Kent County, Michigan 

2. Pickerel Lake Park - Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County, Michigan

3. Sioux Falls, South Dakota 

May You Walk III

May you walk along summer gardens colorful with birds and blooms.

May you walk along shady riverbanks of slow current 
with fish feeding at the smooth surface.

May you walk through native prairies tall with coneflowers. 

May you walk along rural roads beside fields 
rich with topsoil growing soybeans and corn.

May you walk after rain in warm meadows
fresh with sweet clover.

May you walk along the edge of dense woods 
with Staghorn Sumac clustering yellow-green.

May you walk during dusk, when columns of cumulus 
are illuminated by the sun already set.



May you walk through the seasons of your life attentive and alert, 
with a joyful sense of gratitude.

© 2015 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy:

May You Walk - February 7, 2014

May You Walk II - January 12, 2015

Photo Locations:

1. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Rock River - Grand Detour, Illinois

3. St. Mary's Quarry/Prairie Restoration - Dixon, Illinois

4. Lee County, Illinois

5. & 6. Grattan Township - Kent County, Michigan

7. Pickerel Lake Park - Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County, Michigan

Cottonwood Composition

listen to this sound;

the breeze composing music

with Cottonwood leaves

©  2015  Richard Havenga

Eastern Cottonwood - Populus deltoides

Photo Location:

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

Dreams of Birds

Birds of late evening
enter this theater of leaves,
and disappear in the green balcony.

As another dusk deepens,
their grip on twigs tightens,
then some kind of sleep happens.

Do they dream of sheltering trees,
or immaculate folds of bright cumulus,
as they sail vast oceans of sky?

©  2014  Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods

2. & 3. Pickerel Lake Park - Fred Meijer Nature Preserve, (Fred Meijer) Kent County, Michigan