Behold.
The mystery;
the potential miracle
of unhatched eggs.
Placed in a soft cup
of dried grasses,
into a woven
basket of hope.
Elegant eggs
dappled and splotched
with earthy colors.
Being incubated,
nurtured for the
invisible future.
© 2025 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations: Home Gardens - Cannonsburg, Michigan
In Memory of
Aaron Havenga April 2, 1975 ~ November 20, 1994
Driving late at night,
still a long way
from our destination.
Very few cars
on this remote highway.
I'm playing
some of his favorite music
from the Grateful Dead
inside the warm cab of my pickup,
while driving through
the cool, Colorado rain.
Driving into the future,
I feel like these headlights,
and even though I strive,
I cannot see everything
that may be out there.
© 2024 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Steamboat Springs, Colorado
2. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area - Utah
Long, narrow islands
grow slowly over the years,
by inches, by a few feet
in the Platte River.
Ever-changing sandbars
are made and remade,
formed and transformed.
by a slow, shallow current,
meandering, weaving
between massive cottonwoods
that fortify the river banks.
Some of the cottonwoods were
born when horses pulled wagons
east to west through
the long state of Nebraska
along the curves of the Platte,
carrying all of its past
in the slow current
into the future.
© 2023 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. 2. & 3. North Platte, Nebraska
As she spins on the stage,
her pink silk skirt
flares in a circle of dreams.
Moving with feminine grace,
and engaging, magnetic charm,
spinning in brilliant light.
Turning in pirouette,
her captivating face
fixed on the future.
© 2023 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. 2. 3. Hollyhocks - Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
When we hiked up this mountain trail,
and reached this elevation,
we were so much younger.
The long heat of July
blanketed the valley
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Sarah took this photograph
with my Canon camera
and captured this warm moment.
We were together at the summit,
looking east into the distance,
as if we could read the future.
© 2023 Richard Havenga
Photo Location:
Targhee National Forest - Idaho/Wyoming
These separate words
become lines of poetry
floating across blank pages
like leaves on the river.
Paper-clipped together
to be reviewed again,
to be revised again,
released in the future.
Eventually assembled
into a discernable
current of perception.
Poets are keepers of the past
and our hope for the future.
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Grand River - Kent County - Michigan
2. Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan
3. Fallasburg Park - Lowell, Michigan
4. Cannonsburg, Michigan
for Barb Brege
She was a teacher
seeking to reveal the gifts
her young students
were still unaware of.
A classroom of faces,
their eyes bright with sparkle,
their dreams waiting
to be unmasked.
Too young to see
what she saw;
their hidden gifts
waiting to be unveiled
in the invisible future.
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Location:
Old Schoolhouse (1896) Marion County - Kansas
My morning is shrouded
with fog above snow.
Inhaling cold, moist air
while running this country lane.
Cautious with my footing,
carefree with my thoughts.
Pushing forward into
limited visibility.
The future obscure,
the present secure.
Yet imagining the
bright clarity of spring.
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan
2. 3. & 4. Home Road - Kent County - Michigan
In honor of Lillian Havenga's Birthday ~ 10-22-22 > 9-2-21
You built your nest
strong and secure,
and placed four eggs
into a woven
basket of hope.
Ready to nurture
the invisible future.
You have recently flown away,
above the clouded blue sky,
and entered Heaven's bright glory.
Your descendants
have grown and matured,
and now carry on
your legacy of kindness.
And have themselves
built nests of hope
where their fledglings
will either grow and thrive,
or die too young.
© 2021 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
3. Pickerel Lake Park / Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County - Michigan
