While crickets,
hidden deep in the night grass,
provide the background music,
a katydid,
wearing its leaf-green jacket
occupies the first chair
of this summer symphony.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Home Deck - Cannonsburg, Michigan
listen to them sing
American Goldfinches
musical chatter
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Location: Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan
Enchanted by mountain streams,
I sit in my camp chair
and watch the Blackfoot River
flowing past Ponderosa Pines,
carrying water music to my ears.
On the high slopes,
Aspens whisper secrets
between branches of trembling leaves.
I wait with patience
for some suitable words to appear.
Words worthy of mountain streams
lined with Aspen and Ponderosa.
© 2026 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Blackfoot River - Greenough, Montana
2. La Plata Mountains - Colorado
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
Across this broad field of sage,
a Western Meadowlark is perched;
on a fencepost, on a barbed wire.
From this distance
I can barely make out
his sunrise-yellow breast
with the black tie
pointing down his neck.
I delight in his melodious call,
streaming over the plains;
a long banner of song
curling into the warm wind.
This gift of music,
given by the meadowlark,
received with gratitude.
© 2025 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations: Hesperus, Colorado
Each day presents a different design.
Distinctive dimensions on the sky stage.
Clouds dance to the silent music
transmitted through the atmosphere.
A sequence of subtle movements;
a fluid, flowing performance.
Each hour a unique composition
within the choreography of clouds.
© 2025 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Mitchell, South Dakota
2. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
3. North Fort Myers, Florida
Bring forth the relevant gifts
that God gave you
and unwrap them.
Share with the world
your passions, your talents,
your desire to create or compete.
Run your miles.
Take your photographs.
Write your words.
Make your music.
Sing your songs.
Dance your steps.
Bake your pies.
Pray your prayers.
Love your family.
Thank you for your
valuable contributions
and the gifts of your talents.
© 2024 Richard Havenga
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
Our loyal cardinals
brought vibrant color
to a gray and white winter.
And on summer evenings,
they pierce the silence
with sharp, bold whistles.
Filling the air with song.
Filling my ears with music.
Filling my eyes with gratitude.
© 2024 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan
2. & 3. Home Woods
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
Right at the edge of music
something else may be transpiring
besides what you're hearing.
Just beyond the boundaries of sound,
the musician, singer, conductor senses
they have transported you to another venue.
You know you have reached this place
when you feel your imagination soar,
when you perceive the music
in the chambers of your soul,
and it plays with inexplicable emotions,
creating a vast musical landscape
beyond the boundaries of sound.
© 2023 Richard Havenga
Photo Location:
Art Prize Grand Rapids (2014)
The tops of these tall oaks
sway with surprising flexibility,
while the bases of the trunks
remain motionless.
Up there in the canopy,
the song in the wind
plays magical music
that words could never translate.
© 2023 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. & 3. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Grattan township - Kent County - Michigan
for Quyen:
Are we hearing music
streaming from Heaven
when you play the piano?
The silky smoothness
of song played
with color and light.
We watch the graceful movement
of your fingers dancing,
sliding across ebony and ivory.
I listen to your pure voice
with my eyes closed,
imagining the gates of Heaven.
© 2023 Richard Havenga
Photo Location: St. Patrick ~ Parnell
Oh, the abundant blessings of my woods.
Especially during the green fire of spring.
uncurl their curved yellow fingers.
And in the near distance,
hidden in the gray branches,
the loyal Wood Thrush
pours out his musical song.
Liquid notes spilling
into the understory,
filling a chalice of praise.
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. & 2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
After evening tree shadows lengthened,
and dusk overcame the daylight,
crickets and katydids
began their night rhythms.
Through the screens
of our bedroom window,
I listened to the soothing music
playing a late summer song,
and roamed into a deep forest of sleep.
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Home Deck ~ Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Home Woods ~ Cannonsburg, Michigan
for Sarah D'Amico
He carried her around the house,
from window to window,
pointing out things to view.
And with a small,
three-year-old finger,
Sarah pointed too.
And repeated the words she
heard from her daddy:
"tree, flower, bird".
At age five he carried her
into the family canoe on the Flat River;
counting turtles on the rocks and logs.
He ran beside her at seven,
as she wavered and learned
to ride a two-wheeler.
He picked her up in high school
when she was exhausted from
track and cross-country practice.
He brought her to college;
University of Michigan,
and praised her for good grades.
And brought her home, age twenty,
that tragic November,
when her only brother died.
He said, "Goodbye, I'll miss you,"
when she left home to explore her life;
Hawaii, California, Utah, Colorado.
He applauded her guitar music,
as she wrote her own songs
and shared her smooth voice.
He carried her in his prayers
every time he thought of her
making a positive impact in the world.
His eyes teared each time he read her
sweet notes in homemade Father's Day cards,
always ending with:
"I Love You Daddy!"
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Location: Platte River - Honor, Michigan
I welcome the return
of the Song Sparrow.
Its long song
lingers in the air,
then repeats
the sounding joy.
Up and down the scale,
each note worthy of praise.
to one who knows
nothing about music,
but treasures the song
and is grateful to be
in the audience
of one.
© 2022 Richard Havenga
Photo Locations:
1. Saul Lake Bog - Cannonsburg, Michigan
2. Cannonsburg State Game Area - Cannon Township - Michigan
3. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan
