Soothed

 

A mid-August rain

soaks the thirsty soil.

Signs its signature by

churning the lake's surface.

Listen to it hissing, swishing.

Water splashing water.

Rain softening the earth.

Earth sighing and soothed.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Pickerel Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan

3. Villa Grove, Colorado

Ornamental Moon

 

Winter stars

shine through

the bare branches

of naked trees.

An ornamental moon

creates tree shadows

on crusty snow.

I stand in stunned silence,

embraced by the cold,

overwhelmed by serenity.

  

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Catalina, Arizona

2. Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan

3. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Winter Willow

fresh snow overnight

weeping willow in winter

thin fog meets blue sky

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan

Hope of the Heron

Rising
with the pearled light of dawn,
on strong, broad wings,
he lifts into a soft rain.

Wings the color
of this overcast.

A few drops fall
from the tips of his toes
to dimple the surface
like countless other raindrops.

He flies away
with a hope
as large as this lake,
or the next one.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy these Great Blue Heron poems:

"Heron Dreams"  ~ April 13, 2013

"A Trace of Hope" ~ July 9, 2018

Photo Locations:

1. Rogue River - Rockford, Michigan

2. Murray Lake - Kent County, Michigan

Moon's Desire

A veil of moonlight
drifts bone white
upon sheets of fog
covering moist fields.

It dances golden 
upon the lake,
multiplying the moon's desire
to move, to be noticed. 

I am captivated by
the wavy undulations
of her curves, moving slowly
under shimmering silk.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Murray Lake - Kent County, Michigan 

Starting the Day

A few miles west of here, I hear
the bells of St. Patrick's Church
announce the start of 9 o'clock mass.

Here, at Murray Lake,
I'm sitting in the grass,
my backrest is a boulder.

Small bass patrol the shallows
while shallower still, minnows
swim in schools of protection.

A Yellow Warbler is singing
"sweet-sweet-sweet, sweeter-than-sweet,"
from an arching twig of willow.

Spring has ripened into summer.
Swallows sweep low to the lake.
The morning breeze strokes the surface.

I am writing into words
what I see, hear, and feel;
bliss for my senses, 

but thinking and praying
for the home bound, the handicapped 
from St. Patrick's parish.

Offering thanks for my blessings,
as I contemplate the comfortable 
start of this new day outdoors.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy: The Bells of St. Patrick's ~ May 14, 2015

Photo Locations:

1. St. Patrick Church - Parnell, Michigan

2. Murray Lake - Parnell, Michigan

3. Yellow Warbler @ Wabasis Lake - Michigan

4. Pickerel Lake Park & Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Cannonsburg, Michigan