One in a Million

 

With little fanfare,

summer slips into autumn

in each individual leaf

as it turns from green

to yellow, gold, or bronze,

then falls silently to earth

and lies there quietly

with a million others,

until you make one leaf special

by selecting it

and picking it up.

This one in a million,

now pressed in the pages,

within the words

of a poetry book.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Library

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

Space Between Words

 

How could these meager words

ever hope to emulate

a cluster of Sugar Maple leaves

as they waver on long petioles

after a gentle autumn rain?

How could these modest words

ever hope to simulate

a tier of American Beech leaves

when they rise and fall;

like taking a bow

after a ballet performance?

How could these mere words

ever hope to duplicate

the way a mild breeze

whispers through

ten-thousand fine needles

of a large White Pine?

There is nothing

but air and sky

in the spaces

between these words.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 3. Home Woods ~ Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Egypt Valley Loop Hike - Cannonsburg State Game Area - Kent County - Michigan

4. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

5. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

Looking Out

 We have no curtains, no blinds

on our windows to block the view.

We are 700 feet from a gravel road

that is seldom travelled.

When the leaves are on the trees,

we cannot see the road.

From the road,

our house cannot be seen.

We are surrounded by woods;

with tall Red Oaks, some Hickory,

Black Cherry, a few Sugar Maples,

and an occasional American Beech.

I spend a lot of time

looking out our windows,

stepping out on the front porch,

and sitting on the back deck.

I value private.

I cherish quiet.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home - Cannonsburg, 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

drinking the wind

 

I'm drinking the wind,

running through golden showers:

Sugar Maple leaves

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Grattan Township - 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

Naked Light

Sugar Maples slowly shed their leaves;
gold coins falling through their branches,
their richness now collected on the ground. 

Now the naked light of November
displays the elegant tree skeletons
of White Oaks.

Exposes gray, globular hornets' nests
newly visible, hanging high,

and disheveled squirrel nests in Red Oaks;
compact clusters of leaves and twigs
tucked in the trees' tops.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. 3. 4. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

Path Through the Leaves

I found these old words
fallen from familiar trees 
and saved them here
to be surprised in the future.

Like years of autumn leaves
pressed into the pages
of the silent books
that wait on my library shelves.

A broad Sugar Maple leaf
preserved in soft yellow
somewhere inside
William Stafford's work.

A two-lobed Sassafras leaf,
the left-handed one,
flattened on the Michigan page
of my Rand McNally.

And American Beech, my favorite,
gathered in early November;
veins precisely pinnate,
perfect for bookmarks within:

Mary Oliver, Luci Shaw,
Dan Gerber, and David Lee;
to be discovered years later,
they mark my place in time.

Hoping what I've found
will not be lost,
but saved within
the pages of books.

To recall once again
the seasons of life,
my journey with words,
my path through the leaves.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1, 2, 3. Home Library

4. 5. Home Woods

6. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

7. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

Grace Notes

This morning breeze
whispers in the woods,
then the wind 
becomes more ambitious
as a stratus blanket 
grows in the northwest,
signaling a summer shower
coming soon. 

Among the far-reaching branches
of Sugar Maples and White Oaks,
where sunlight touches their tips,
Redstarts are flitting
orange and black,
orange and black,
along the wall of green.

Just now a Veery.
A Veery!
Calling from within
the density of green.

I wait.
I listen.
He appears.

His sweet song
showers me
with grace notes.
I feel immersed
in a pool of serenity.

I want to take
all of this
with me,
and give it 
to you.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Listen to the call of the Veery from Cornell Labs: 

Veery Call


Photo Locations: Wabasis Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan 

numbers

infinite numbers

this intricacy of leaves

miracles of green

©  2014  Richard Havenga

Sugar Maple - Acer saccharum 

Photo Location: Cannon Township, Kent County, Michigan

The Path

A large, blue sky is

ruffled by small, white clouds.
A large, Sugar Maple is
dressed in spring green leaves.
A warm, May morning
invites me outside, again.

My comfortable Merrill® hiking boots
carry me to unexpected treasures.

My dependable Canon® camera
captures a fraction of the feast.

My trusted Creator-God
leads the way to these precious gifts.

I believe in my heart and soul,

that I am on the right path.

©  2014  Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County,  Michigan
2. & 3. Home Garden - Cannonsburg,  Michigan
4. Tin Cup,  Colorado

tempus fugit

soft shades of yellow

last night's raindrops cling to twig

drops and leaves will fall

 

 

©  2013  Richard Havenga

 

 



 

 

 

Sugar Maple - Acer saccharum  (Acer saccharinum) 

 

Photo Location:

 

Townsend Park,  (Townsend)  Kent County,  Michigan (Michigan)