While the Stars Are Watching

 

While the stars are watching,

I invite the quiet into my mind.

Trying to fathom the distance

between me and Orion.

or from here to the moon,

or the many years I've lived

on this beautiful planet,

and what to do, significantly,

with the time I have left,

and how long that might be?

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Home Sky - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Small Things

 

Small things collected

from ordinary days:

The lavender softness

of Wild Geraniums

unfurling their

five-petaled dresses.

The exuberant call

of the first

Brown Thrasher

in mid-spring.

Fresh fawns

standing still

as statues

in deep grass.

Red Oak buds

becoming baby leaves

misted with

morning dew.

A delicate blossom

of Mayapple nodding

from the forked stem

below umbrella leaves.

The common 

Cabbage Butterfly

resting on tender petals

of Sulfur Cinquefoil.

The gradual pinking

of evening light

reflected on the slow

flowing Grand River.

The anticipated arrival

of familiar constellations;

especially Orion

and his girlfriend Cassiopeia.

Magnificent things collected

from extraordinary days.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Wild Geranium - Home Woods

2. Brown Thrasher - Home Woods

3. White-tailed Deer Fawns - Home Woods

4. "Baby" Red Oak leaves - Home Woods

5. Mayapple blossom - Home Woods

6. Cabbage Butterfly & Sulfur Cinquefoil - Home Fields

7. Grand River - Plainfield Township - Kent County - Michigan

8. Orion - Catalina, Arizona

Ocean of Sky

As I watch Orion
rise on the tide of night,
and sail slowly through
the vast ocean of sky,

a voice 
inside my soul
whispers:

"Soli gloria deo".

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Catalina, Arizona

Ballet Beneath the Stars

She was hoping the clouds would clear,
was waiting for darkness to arrive.

Waiting for the stars to begin
their silent, distant dance.

Ready to begin her own alone dance,
to the silent music playing in her head;

with no one in the universe watching,
except, perhaps, her guardian angels.

Under this glittering galaxy,
a ballet beneath the stars.

Grace and gratitude.
Close enough to feel.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Art Prize ~ 2013 -Grand Rapids, Michigan

2. Orion ~ from Catalina, Arizona 

Orion and Cassiopeia

On this cold, clear night
ten thousand stars burn overhead.

It's ten degrees and getting colder,
but this older man who feels young
stays outside long enough
to find his favorite constellations:
Orion and Cassiopeia;
dependable and constant,
light years apart.

Coming into the house,
he decides to warm his wife
with a January fire, with firewood
he cut, split, and stacked last October,
when the woods were aflame with color,
and time was burning fast.

Flames grow in the fireplace,
sparks rise like a constellation,
and passion returns to burn
on this cold clear night.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home

Midnight Stage

Try to measure the great gaps
between the stars;
the width, the depth of the universe.

Within this eternal theater,
the black curtain of night
reveals familiar constellations.

Orion and Cassiopeia,
accent these winter skies
on this calm, cold night.

You are invited to watch 
the silent performance 
of ten-thousand stars 
burning on this midnight stage.

© 2015 Richard Havenga