The Poetry of Water

 

It's difficult to translate

the meaning of words

the mountain stream carries

as it hurries through the canyon;

bashing big boulders,

splashing through the rapids.

Elsewhere, the poetry of water slows

and swirls into clear pools;

transparent with nuance,

tranquil with meaning.

I kneel for a closer look.

Fine grasses and golden sky light 

reflect on the smooth surface.

Through the clear lens of water

I examine the bottom of the pool

and read in the rippled sand

the words collected there:

Slow down. Be still.

Observe the smallest

contours of creation.

But this poem 

does not end

here.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

2. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

3. Santa Catalina Mountains - Arizona

 

 

Patient Pioneers

 

Along the boulder's

curving roundness,

circular splotches of lichen

cling tightly to the hardness.

Existing and persisting

for possibly a hundred years.

Weathering the rocks,

penetrating the pores.

Patient pioneers;

crustose creating

colonies of color.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor, Maine

2. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

3. Grand Mesa, Colorado

Until

 

The farther up this trail I go,

the fewer people I see,

until I'm in the company of quiet.

Until I reach this rushing stream

and sit on a boulder to listen

to the talking waters.

Studying the current

rolling over rocks,

bending around boulders.

Silver veins of water

tumbling in turmoil,

falling freely with grace.

Until these words

 flow into lines

of liquid poetry.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Yellowstone National Park

Payette

 

All the silver threads

glittering in the Payette River

briefly reflect the light, then blend 

into the blue-green water

as the current weaves

a liquid tapestry

through the canyon;

laughing as it tumbles

over large boulders,

obeying gravity,

joyful on its journey.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. & 3. Payette River - Idaho

Rushing

 

Like a fast mountain stream

plunging past boulders,

the current of time

is rushing through my life.

To slow down time,

I sit on a boulder,

breathing slowly, deeply;

open to possibilities.

After some patient waiting

under the shade of pine and spruce,

an American Dipper suddenly appears.

While slipping into the current,

it captured larvae

from underwater rocks.

Now it's ready to serve them to its young,

hidden in a globular nest of bronze moss,

anchored upon a wet boulder

in the middle of this

fast mountain stream

rushing through my life.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. & 3. Taylor River (Lodgepole Campground) - Almont, Colorado

Reluctant Poem

In the beginning,
this poem exhibited some reluctance
to cooperate (as you can see);
or even to ride along with me
at least until the next bridge
where we could have crossed it together
if we had gotten to it
in my pretty red truck.

But I stopped before the bridge,
got out, and began walking downstream
through this fine mountain valley.

Alone.

After I made it around the first bend,
I thought I heard the poem approaching;
sensed it getting closer to my brain,
perhaps changing its attitude.

Then, as I stopped, and looked back upstream,

there it was, indicating a desire to come along.
As it came closer, shyly at first,
I reached out to pat its shoulder. 

It gave me a little nudge.

The poem now became gracious 
in my presence;

and began pointing out a few things I might have missed:

Like the way the stream collected

the big sky and trees,

and returned these reflections for me to reflect on.

Like the sound of the current

that tumbled over and around
huge, smooth boulders.

It even called attention 
to the satisfied sound

of my own breathing,
as I inhaled the essence
of Ponderosa Pines.

I sat down in the pine-needled sunlight
to further absorb this pleasant landscape,

and hopefully become better acquainted

with this poem, and its intentions; 
but as I looked around,

it was gone. Just like that.

And long lines of words 
evaporated into the big sky. 

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. St. Ignace, Michigan

2. Buena Vista, Colorado

3. Bayfield, Colorado

4. Blackfoot River - Missoula, Montana

5. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan

6. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

7. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

8. Hamilton, Montana

9. South Dakota  

Silver Arms

The Arkansas River
wraps its silver arms
around cold boulders;

rushing, racing
for the foothills,
for the plains;

to meander for miles,
to settle its sediment,
to assimilate 
in the Atlantic.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Buena Vista, Colorado 

3. Coaldale, Colorado

4. Atlantic Ocean

Shadow of the Hawk

Hiking this bouldered trail
on my earth bound existence,
I am suddenly touched
by the passing shadow
of a Red-tailed Hawk.

Above these foothills
scattered with Ponderosa,
he is sailing in circles.


Below these cumulus
growing whiter and brighter,
he is dancing on the wind.

Under this intensely blue
Colorado sky,
this flying shadow
felt like a brief blessing. 

It was.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1, 2, 3: Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado 

4. Kent County, Michigan

Stone Chalice: Sound Within Silence

While the desert below
exhales the evening,
up here on the granite ridge
twilight is held briefly
upon the surface 
of golden pools.

I accept the invitation to sit,
to watch, to listen, 
and absorb.

These bones of granite
cup this fluid 
of the earth.
Tinájas. Water pockets.
Small chambers of
liquid stillness,
waiting to play
Sonoran music in these
Santa Catalina Mountains.

Boulders squeeze
these pools into tiny, 
dripping sounds,
like the smallest
of hand bells; 
played by the very hands
of creation.

Now, years later,
as in trying
to recall a dream,
it is difficult to 
remember this 
sound within silence,
this stone chalice,
while waiting 
for another miracle.

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Santa Catalina Mountains, (Coronado National Forest)  Tucson,  Arizona