High above my head,
a suddenly ambitious wind
arrests my attention.
I look up,
and dancing in
the higher branches,
a full orchestra of leaves
waving at me, and playing
Cottonwood music.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Kent County - Michigan
2. Sandhills of Nebraska
This wine I drink,
that now conforms
to the glass I hold;
does it remember the vines
that held its clusters
of plump, purple grapes?
The broad leaves,
prominently-veined,
that shaded the treasured fruit?
The soil, the sun on the slopes
of Old Mission Peninsula,
of Leelanau Peninsula vineyards,
refreshed by Lake Michigan breezes?
I do.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Deck - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. 3. 4. & 5. Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail
I'm taking time, again,
to examine small moments.
Appreciating the fragments
that comprise a fulfilling day.
Bluebirds in the background,
sharing their liquid song
as I weed the perennial garden
below their conversation.
These isolated streaks
of high cirrus clouds
becoming white feathers
brushing the morning sky.
A sudden burst of wind
that releases and carries
a mass of autumn leaves
tumbling and turning with gravity.
Taking time again, to recall
memory's precious treasures.
All those yesterdays giving birth to today
with confident hope for tomorrow.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. & 3. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Home Sky - Cannonsburg, Michigan
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
I'm walking through this long
corridor of Red Pines,
footsteps soft and silent
on layers of needles
slowly becoming soil.
Recalling the signage that said:
"Planted in the 1930's
by the Civilian Conservation Corps
during the Great Depression."
Decades later,
I appreciate their work;
it has made a great impression.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. & 2. Red Pine Trail - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan
During autumn's
popular splash of colors,
you may have missed
the more subtle tones;
when green ferns
turn into gold,
and blueberry fields
lay carpets of deep crimson.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. McCarthy Lake - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan
2. Ottawa County - Michigan
Have you been touched
by the warming grace
that glows briefly
within your grateful heart?
Have you experienced
end of the day contentment
that accompanies
your gratitude?
Be aware and prepared
for it to happen again,
as you accept
your inherited blessings.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Home Fields - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan
3. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan
Please read these words
slowly.
They arrived after careful,
purposeful searching.
Some people say that writing
is not work,
but writers know
the work of writing.
Occasionally, but rarely,
the words pour down,
like a sudden, summer
thundershower.
But most of the time
the words arrive slowly,
like the gradual, daily growth
of new leaves in the spring.
Writing requires patience, persistence,
and perceptive discernment,
to know when
you have it right.
Knowing when
it's done.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Bird Island, North Carolina
2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
They rise and dive,
dart and dip,
sweep and weave,
as they flutter by
your garden of flowers.
These capricious creatures
lighter than air,
performing an erratic ballet;
dancing through the soft
sunshine of summer.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. 2. 3. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
They tread lightly
as a breath of spring
over the water's smooth surface.
Long legs pushing, propelling,
rowing themselves with
persistence and purpose.
Navigating the quiet waters.
Efficiently patrolling
the surface film.
Walking on water.
Water riders.
Water Striders.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. 2. & 3. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan
Rising from the wetlands,
a prized living trophy
glowing on the stage,
anthers bowing down
in adoration,
surrounded by
a supporting audience
of soft, pastel petals.
American Lotus.
Nelumbo lutea.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Location:
Grand River - Spring Lake, Michigan
I know you must
have touched them
at some time in your life.
The powdery scales
of moths, so soft
they rub off on your fingers.
Wearing furry skirts
on short, fluttering flights.
Queens of the night.
Attracted by your light.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Flat River State Game Area - Lowell Township - Kent County - Michgian
The tight flower bud
is a potential prayer.
Developing quietly.
Swelling slowly.
Unfolding gradually,
until it becomes
a wide open blossom;
the delicate petals
offering this
full-bodied prayer.
Giving praise and reverence
to the creator.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. & 2. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
While crickets,
hidden deep in the night grass,
provide the background music,
a katydid,
wearing its leaf-green jacket
occupies the first chair
of this summer symphony.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Home Deck - Cannonsburg, Michigan
This handsome yellow bird,
accented with a black cap,
black wings and tail,
swoops across the summer sky
in shallow arches;
an undulating flight between the trees.
Singing yellow notes
of freedom
into the blue sky.
Until it comes down to earth
to feed on the seeds
of flowers.
American Goldfinch.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. & 2. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
3. Roselle Park - Ada Township - Kent County - Michigan
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
During the pearly light of dawn,
I thought I heard the sun
announce its imminent approach
just below the eastern horizon.
It began as a soft murmur
in subdued tints of rosy gray,
reflecting off the cold waves
of Lake Superior.
Then the sun flared into sudden sight,
and golden trumpets played the new day.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Lake Superior - Paradise, Michigan
2. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan
From the fertile fields of time
comes a bountiful harvest of days.
Clouds like linen may lay
on a bed of blue sky.
Or a thick, gray overcast
will shed sheets of rain.
Or a brilliant rainbow
may arc in the clouds,
bringing the promise
of a brighter tomorrow.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Location: Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
Meteorologists call them
Fair Weather Cumulus.
Poets see a fleet of small ships
sailing on an ocean of sky.
Small paragraphs of thought
to entertain your brain.
White pillows to rest your head.
Cushions that accumulate, dissipate.
Like the transient
perplexity of dreams.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations: Home Skies - Cannonsburg, Michigan
My pen is poised
over this yellow pad
like a heron's beak
above the river's surface.
Ready to plunge
for a choice word
swimming in the dark water.
Probing the possibilities,
within the pool of poetry.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. North Fort Myers, Florida
2. Rogue River - Rockford, Michigan
