Starter Words

 

I scribble a few starter words

onto this empty yellow page.

Black letters across blue lines

awaiting a sense of direction.

Hungry for a hint, an indication,

or some subtle suggestion

on where to go, how to proceed.

Then I decide to stop and read:

Kenyon* and Kooser*,

Stafford* and Stafford* for starters.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

* Jane Kenyon

*Ted Kooser

*William Stafford

*Kim Stafford

You may also like:  "Hovering Pen"

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

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

Book Rock

In Memory of Mary Oliver (1935 ~ 2019)

When I remove this special rock
from the shoulder of the mountain,

and during the descent,
feel its weight inside my pack,

I picture it displayed
on my library shelf.

Or,

I may use its weight to hold open
a book of poems I'm reading

by Mary Oliver, William Stafford, 
Jane Kenyon, Ted Kooser,
Luci Shaw, or Dan Gerber, ...

as I sit on the bank
of this rocky river,
thinking about its source.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Home Library - Cannonsburg, 

3. Elk River - Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Fragments of Poetry 8

When mornings and evenings roll along,
watch how they open and close, how they
invite you to the long party that your life is.

-William Stafford

Poem:  "A Valley Like This" 

Collection:  Even In Quiet Places  © 1996  by The Estate of William Stafford  (Stafford)





Photo Locations:

1.  La Jolla,  (La Jolla)  California

2. Kauai,  (Kauai)  Hawaii

Fragments of Poetry 6

"The land rolls out its own magnificence,
and you inherit whatever your eyes
can prove by their glance
that they're worthy of." - William Stafford














from poem:  "You, Reader"

from collection:  My Name is William Tell   c 1992



(Click on photo to enlarge)

Photo Location:  Absoroka Range,   Pray,   Montana  (Montana)


View previous "Fragments of Poetry":

May 1,   May 13,    July 19 ,   Aug. 18,   Nov. 13 

Fragments of Poetry

Occasionally, I will share with you the work of a few of my favorite Poets. I've been collecting excerpts for many years. Collecting could mean underlining in a book of collected poems, or I may quote them in my Journal entries.

Today I will highlight William Stafford. Particularly, An Oregon Message c 1987.

The pieces I have chosen help support my intentions for this "Walk With Father Nature" blog:

To be grateful for the gifts we are given,
to share these gifts with others.

Enjoy these fragments of poetry from William Stafford. Savor the message.

In the introduction Stafford writes:

"Each poem is a gift, a surprise that emerges as itself..."



"Waiting in Line"

There have been evenings when the light
has turned everything silver, and like you
I have stopped at the corner and suddenly
staggered with the grace of it all: to have
inherited all this, ...

"Next Time"

Next time what I'd do is look at
the earth before saying anything. I'd stop
just before going into a house
and be an emperor for a minute
and listen better to the wind
          or to the air being still.

"On Earth"

The lives we have, while we have them,
can measure time , before and after
today, to use or give away.

On earth it is like this, a strange
gift we hold, while we look around.

"Little Rooms"

There are rooms in a life, apart from others, rich
with whatever happens, a glimpse of moon, a breeze.
You who come years from now to this brief spell
of nothing that was mine: the open, slow passing
of time was a gift going by. I have put my hand out
on the mane of the wind, like this, to give it to you.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Photo Locations:

1. Santa Catalina Mountains - (Santa Catalina Mtns.) Arizona
2. Beverly Beach State Park, (Beverly Beach) Oregon
3. National Veteran's Cemetery - SantaFe, (Santa Fe)New Mexico
4. Whitefish Point - (Whitefish Point) Lake Superior - Michigan

An Oregon Message  c 1987   by William Stafford