Out Here

 

Even clean air,

seen through many miles,

like in western Wyoming,

or the Colorado Rockies,

can haze the distant mountains.

I am out here, attentive,

wrapped in time's presence.

Ready for an elk sighting,

a moose in a lake,

or a distant meadowlark

making music 

from his throne

on a wooden fencepost.

In between the meadowlark's calls,

in the space between mountains,

God speaks in silence.

I am out here.

Listening.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

2. Telluride, Colorado

3. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

4. & 5. Mancos, Colorado

Teton Twilight

After an extraordinary day

of watching Pronghorns

scramble through sagebrush flats,

of observing bull Moose

browsing willow shrubs

along the Snake River,

of examining Elk

grazing grasses

along the forest edge,

twilight arrives in the Tetons.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1, 2, & 4. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

3. Telluride, Colorado

Diminished

 

Oxbow, my friend,

I have traveled far 

to visit you

several times over the years.

Your vast, blue skies

spattered with small clouds,

reflected in the Snake River,

have energized me in the past.

Your pelicans, cormorants,

eagles, mergansers,

moose and river otters,

have enlivened my days.

Your Grand Teton outlines,

always spectacular and dramatic,

have inspired my soul,

enriched my mind.

This past summer,

a summer of smoke and haze,

I suffer for you;

for the visibility lost,

for the grandeur

of the Grand Tetons

diminished.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1, 2, 3, & 4. Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming