First Place

 

Look closely again,

at the intricate patterns

in the spring-greening trees.

In the following category,

"Pinnately-Veined Leaves",

I award First Place to...

AMERICAN BEECH !

Their narrow, tapered buds swell,

then unfold coppery sheaths,

to reveal tender young leaves.

Pleated green skirts

rise and fall in the breeze,

inviting your touch.

This award is your reward

for being present, and close

to the pulse of spring.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. 3. 4. & 5.  Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Moving Meditation

 

Hiking in these mountains

is like moving meditation.

The small sound

of boots on stony ground.

Golden aspen leaves

fluttering in a light breeze

become a soft orchestra 

in the background.

High in the cloudless sky,

a Red-tailed Hawk

pierces the moment

with its captivating cry.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Ouray, Colorado

2. Ridgway, Colorado

3. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

Morning Jewels

In the quiet stillness

of this summer morning,

pearls of dew are cradled 

in arching blades of grass.

No breath of breeze

will roll them from their nest.

Only the climbing sun

and passing time

will make these

morning jewels disappear.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

 

Shine

 

A poet always hopes

that the poem's words

will shine upon the page.

Be illuminated 

by the early light

of a June morning.

Create a sense of rhythm,

like the wavelets

licking the sandy shore.

Or the whooshing, rushing music

of a mountain stream

dancing with boulders.

Perhaps a gentle breeze

lifting and lilting

tiers of new maple leaves.

To wed experience with imagination.

Imagery with ingenuity.

Vision with enhanced awareness.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Sky - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Lake Michigan - Grand Haven State Park - Michigan

3. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

Vivaldi Playing in the Trees

 

Late this morning,

summer sunlight

sifts through the canopy

of these tall Red Oaks.

Flocks of cumulus

assemble overhead;

form clusters

in a sky-blue sky.

Now cloud shadows

crawl across the land

as an increasing breeze

murmurs through the woods. 

I think I hear

Vivaldi

playing in the trees:

Allegro!

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Home Sky - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Dancing Grasses

 

All these slender grasses

are dancing with 

invisible partners.

Their golden hair

swaying in the

summer breeze.

This silent choreography

absorbing my attention

with grace and light.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Pickerel Lake Park / Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County - Michigan

Bats, Crickets, & Fireflies

 

As this August evening cools,

a breath of a breeze

sifts through the screen

onto my head and shoulders,

brings soothing relief

after a week of humid heat.

I sigh, breathe deeply,

and continue to write:

about the bats

with their skittering flight

as dusk descends,

about the Snowy Tree Crickets

trying to synchronize their sounds

from the string section

high in the canopy of trees,

about the fireflies

flashing their yellow-green lanterns

under the darkening woods. 

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Videos taken with Samsung Galaxy S-10 from Home Woods

This Could Be Yours

 

When spring birdsong

begins to escalate

an hour after dawn,

you could be there to

appreciate the chorus.

When the calm morning

rises into a soft breeze

just enough to bend the reeds,

you could feel it

upon your skin.

When the sun

penetrates the canopy

and brightens the forest floor,

you could find a place to sit,

give thanks and meditate.

When the serenity you experience

lasts as long as you can stay,

you could take the light with you;

carry it along your path, to others,

like a treasured, transparent gift.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

 

Photo Locations:

1. Indigo Bunting ~ Cannonsburg State Game Area - Kent County - Michigan

2. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

3. & 4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Silk

Rainbowed streaks
of spider silk
play with sunlight
and a breath of breeze.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Dixon, Illinois

Watching Wind

When a sudden breeze
skitters over calm water,
silvering the surface,
briefly wrinkling 
the glass of the lake,
I am able to track
the course of the wind,
trace its path 
as it ruffles the water.

Another unexpected pleasure;
watching wind.

This small gift,
moving with swift grace,
carrying brief enchantment,
capturing the eyes of the watcher. 

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Reeds Lake - East Grand Rapids, Michigan

3. Huyser Lake - Cannonsburg State Game Area - Cannonsburg, Michigan

 

Pinus strobis

The magnificent White Pine,

(Pinus strobis)

fine tunes the breeze

(five needles to a bundle)

through its delicate twigs

(brittle, thin-barked)

and soft green needles.

(flexible, pungent)

Listen.
It calls to you
for your own translation.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. 3. Cannon Township - Kent County - Michigan

Accepting

Extending from rigid
willow branches,
flexible yellow braids
bend in the breeze,
curve in the current;
yielding, yet resilient. 

Supple as slow thought.
Accepting what is  given.
Anticipating what is to come:

from the wind in the willows,
from the rapids in the river,
from the surprises in life.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Big Crooked Lake - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Leslie E. Tassell Park - Cascade Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. Thornapple River - Ada Township - Kent County - Michigan

4. McCarthy Lake - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michgan

dancing with the wind

thriving on the earth

grasses brush the summer breeze

dancing with the wind

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

secrets shared

Segments of sunshine
are blinking through old white pines,

then the land
exhales a soft breath.

I hear it whispering
among fine, glossy needles,

and listen for secrets shared
between trees and breeze.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: White Pine - Grattan Township - Kent County, Michigan

Remember These

These promising days
keep opening for you,
but closing too soon;

these spent days
becoming yesterdays,
accumulating into
dusty stacks of time,
old piles of years.

But,

if you listen carefully
some morning in spring,
when the Redbuds
warm the riverbanks,
and Flowering Dogwoods
reach out their slender arms of lace
to grace the edge of the woods;

if you listen carefully,
you may hear your dreams
still whispering in the breeze:

"Remember these."

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grand Rapids Township - Kent County, Michigan 

2. Thornapple River - Caledonia Township - Kent County, Michigan

Return from the West

After returning
from the endless skies,
encircled by long horizons,
and driving the visible miles
on the plains of Kansas;

After viewing Colorado's
bouldered streams
and magnificent mountains
growing with tall spruces
and spreading Ponderosa Pines;

I am surrounded, again,
by this wall of green;
a thick, humid canopy
of Red Oaks and Black Oaks,
this density of summer leaves.

The far out
crowns of trees
are swaying in the wind,
brushing the sky
back and forth.

But down here
on the backyard deck,
only a breath of breeze gets through.
Enough to turn the page
of the book I'm reading,

and suggest an idea
for a new poem.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Buena Vista, Colorado 

2. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

3. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

4. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, 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