Entering the Painting: "The Vineyards at Cagnes"

 

Leaning against an olive tree,

the lady sits contentedly

in her own private world.

Red blouse, blue skirt,

the wide brim of her hat

shielding the sun.

Apparently reading a book,

entering the story,

absorbing the narrative

in her delicate head.

Invisible to the reading lady,

I enter the painting.

Leaning on the other olive tree,

sitting in the summer shade,

wearing my ordinary clothes.

I observe the landscape,

and begin to write about

my pastoral impressions

and her captivating presence.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

"The Vinyard at Cagnes" ~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1908

Photo Location: Vero Beach Museum of Art - Vero Beach, Florida

Turning Pages

 

An ambitious wind

rises with the sun,

pushes its way through the day.

Twists tiers of leaves

to expose their undersides,

dances with towering tree tops.

Carries cumulus clouds

from west to east

over your sky view.

Tickles your skin.

Furrows your hair.

Freshens your face.

Turns your book's pages

before they've been

read. 

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

2. Joliet, Illinois

3. Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

4. Home Deck - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Reading Outdoors

 

Oh, the many benefits

of reading outdoors:

The sun shining brightly

on the pages of your book.

Tree shadows passing

over the paragraphs.

Perhaps golden leaves

landing in your lap.

A small choir of birds

singing in the background.

Or a clamorous crowd of geese

causing you to look up.

Occasional bursts of wind

turning the pages for you.

Dragonflies landing on the lines,

walking on the words.

Maybe a cool stream

trickling over your toes.

Or the sound of gentle ripples

entering your ears.

All these welcome distractions

affecting your concentration.

Causing you to get paper and pen.

Following the urge to write outdoors.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Fallasburg Park - Lowell, Michigan

2. Tassell Park - Cascade, Michigan

3. Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve - Parnell, Michigan

4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

5. SaddleBrooke - Arizona

Filling Space

 

Are you still

filling that space

between birth and death?

Taking enough time

to embrace

the unique gifts of nature?

Walking on paths

not paved or cemented,

but soft as leaves on soil?

Reading more books

rather than

staring at screens?

Traveling to

those national parks

you've always wanted to see?

Have you learned

how to fall in love

with this time you were given?

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

3. Home Library

4. Glacier National Park - Montana

5. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery - San Diego, California

The Bookmark

 

She took a random book

from his poetry collection

down from the library shelf,

and fanning through the pages,

found a bookmark he had left.

The bookmark marked

page 37 in the poetry book

by Mary Oliver titled:

Red Bird.

He had underlined these lines

from Oliver's poem titled:

"Sometimes"...

"Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it."

He did.

He was.

He told. 

© 2021 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

John Burroughs

I want to share with you these beautiful volumes that I purchased at a used book sale at the Cascade Library. (KDL-Cascade) The date? July 4, 1975. Our son, Aaron, was only two months old. I was only 27. Now, at 65, I still have these books stored in an antique, mission oak, bookcase, with sliding glass doors.

Each of these volumes is 5" X 8" (13 X 20 cm), and, as you can see, embossed with exquisite design and styling. Look at the three-dimensional depth, the texture, the fine detail within the vines, the roots, the gold etching inside the wreathed circle.

You are looking at John Burroughs Complete Nature Writings. 
They were published in 1879, 1895, 1904, 1907, and 1921. 

Would you like to read some excerpts? Okay:

"...can there be anything more delicious than the first warm April rain, -- the first offering of the softened and pacified clouds of spring? The quickening spirit of the rain is needed... charged with the very essence of spring."
- Vol. III  Is It Going To Rain?

" I am always at home when I see the passenger pigeon. Few spectacles please me more than to see clouds of these birds sweeping across the sky, ... They are in such multitudes, they people the whole air; they cover townships, ..."
- Vol. IV A Bird Medley

"... love of nature has high religious value. .. It has given people an inexhaustible field for inquiry, ... It has made them contented and at home whenever they are in nature -- in the house not made with hands."
- Vol. V  The Faith of a Naturalist

Even the spines exhibit depth, design, and dimension.



"How completely the life of a bird revolves about its nest, its home! In the case of the wood thrush, its life and joy seem to mount higher and higher as the nest prospers. The male becomes a fountain of melody; his happiness waxes day by day; he makes little triumphal tours about the neighborhood, and pours out his pride and gladness in the ears of all. How sweet, how well-bred, is his demonstration! But let any accident befall that precious nest, and what a sudden silence falls upon him!
- Vol. VI Glimpses of Wild Life

"Some time in October the crows begin to collect together in large flocks and establish their winter quarters. They choose some secluded wood for a roosting-place, and thither all the crows for many square miles of country betake themselves at night, and thence they disperse in all directions again in the early morning. The crow is a social bird, a true American; no hermit or recluse is he. The winter probably brings them together  in these large colonies for purposes of sociability..."
- Vol. VII  Nature With Closed Doors

For 38 years I've owned Volumes III-IX.  I'm still searching for Volumes I & II.  Any help?

 

 "I think I was born under happy stars, with a keen sense of wonder, which has never left me, ... One of the best things a man can bring into the world with him is natural humility of spirit. About the next best thing he can bring, and they usually go together, is an appreciative spirit -- a loving and susceptible heart."

- Vol. VIII  An Outlook Upon Life

 

 

"Oh, the worlds and systems of worlds that the night reveals, -- the outlook off into infinity which the darkness brings! When the day is done, when the night falls, how are the heavens opened! how is the universe extended! how are the glory and the sublimity of creation multiplied!
- Vol. IX  The Summit of the Years






Important Note for local readers:

CASCADE LIBRARY - part of the extensive Kent District Library (KDL) will again be holding its annual FOURTH OF JULY - USED BOOK SALE. This year- 2013; every year. Be there! (Cascade Library)



(click on photos to enlarge)

Photo Location:  Home Library