How to Read Words

 

You are reading these words

as I have written them:

Transparent as Lake Superior's water.

Clear as the night sky in the desert.

Soft as the petals of Arizona's poppies.

Colorful as October woods in Michigan.

Generous as the ocean pushing onto the shore.

Fresh as spring daffodils in your garden.

Dependable as the seasons turning.

Striving as acorns aspire to become oaks.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Whitefish Point Bird Observatory - Upper Peninsula- Michigan

2. La Jolla, California

3. Wabasis Lake Park & Campground - Kent County - Michigan

Morning Hours

As the autumn sun is rising,

often crimson or golden,

I'm in my writing chair

in our cozy library,

looking out the window

for new ideas, for a few

words to come together.

These few, precious hours

allow me to observe the way

the American Beech leaves

first begin to shuffle,

or the way the ambitious wind

tears the remaining  leaves

from these broad White Oaks.

Most days, these morning hours

are fruitful and fulfilling,

and I am grateful

for the enrichment

as I press pen to page,

collecting fragments;

finding my poetry.

© 2024 Richaard Havenga

White Oak

 

This massive White Oak

sends its roots 

deep into the earth,

probing the heart of gravity.

Its crown spreads wide,

capturing life-giving energy;

the miracle of photosynthesis

performed with the summer sun,

under a transparent sky.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Lowell Township - Kent County - Michigan

Song in the Wind

 

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

The Language of Trees

The language of trees
speaks to me through:

Magnificent maples, 
when they produce
the song of the samaras
spinning back to earth.

Flexible willows 
creating curtains of yellow braids
weaving long lines
in the light wind.

Elegant, old oaks
spreading broad branches 
from a solid, sturdy trunk.

Tall, tapering tamaracks
when they display warm,
yellow candle glow
illuminating the wetlands.

 Intricate American Beech
in the spring when their buds
birth tender, pastel leaves.

Persistent palms;
towering to touch the moon,
or catching a patchwork
pattern of sunlight.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Dad's Farm - Kent County, Michigan

2. Blythefield Memory Gardens - Kent County - Michigan

3. Grand Detour, Illinois

4. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

5. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

6. SaddleBrooke, Arizona

7. Estero, Florida

Carrying Hope

Look.

Look at everything
placed along your path,
before your line of sight,
around you, surrounding you.

Escape from your home,
your work, 
your car,
your phone!

Enter the wild woods and fields.
For an hour, leave your touch-screen
and touch green leaves.

Feel the minute hairs on the leaf,
the serrated edge, the slender petiole
connected to the twig of the branch;
branching from the trunk
that broke through the soil --

(50 years before television),
(90 years before internet) --

as a tiny shoot;
carrying hope
through its vessels,
and flowing with faith
for the future.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

4. Lowell Township - Kent County - Michigan

Probing

Probing the heart of gravity,
old oaks seek solid anchorage
through the thin skin
of earth's topsoil;
probing deeper
into the bones
of the earth.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Minooka, Illinois 

Ancient Oaks

Ancient oaks
holding time
within their solid wood;

ancient stars
visible through
leafless branches.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan 

2. Loveland, Colorado  

Gravity

Probing the heart of gravity,

old oaks seek solid anchorage

in the bones of the earth.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Grattan Township - Kent County, Michigan 

Integrity

How to translate
the chaos of the wind,
when it thrashes
these solid, old oaks.

Only yesterday
it stroked
the infant leaves
with a warm breeze
gentle as a mother's touch.

Now the tall trunks
are wavering, swaying,
the rigid limbs rocking.

The intensity of the wind
testing the architectural design
of these living pillars,
testing the integrity
of these solid old oaks.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Minooka, Illinois

Watching and Waiting

I am waiting for the slow, silver
approach of dawn,
and the birth of this new day:

Watching the arms of sturdy, old oaks,
arched and etched
in morning silhouettes.

The hint of color in wildflowers
before they're painted with light.

Anticipating the first notes
of birdsong before they're sung.

These many gifts of creation
waiting to be opened, 

and another chance
to tell about them.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Bindweed - Gun Lake - S.W. Michigan 

4. Wood Thrush - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

gravity

it's their time again

acorns zipping through oak leaves

gravity bullets

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grand Detour, Illinois

2. Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan 

67

I am
surrounded by these
strong, substantial oaks;
their branches reaching
into the sky,
growing through the seasons,

triumphant with celebration,
as if giving praise,
with many arms.

Still rejoicing
after 67 summers.

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home Woods

A Few Seconds

A tight cluster
of Cedar Waxwings
spilled suddenly
from the canopy
of tall Red Oaks;
leaves green and glossy
in bright summer sun.

 

 

 

They flew fast
with direction
and purpose,
over the field
scattered with
round bales
of hay.

Then disappeared.

Into the
dense foliage
of Silver Maples
lining the riverbank.

When you first heard
their high-pitched
whistles, did you
                               quickly
                                            look up
                                                         to catch
                                                                      their
                                                                             passing
                                                                                          flight? 

Did this little
squadron of joy
quicken those
few seconds
of your day?

© 2013 Richard Havenga



Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Pickerel Lake Park - Fred Meijer Nature Preserve,  (Pickerel)  Kent County,  Michigan

3. White Cloud,  Michigan

4. & 5.  Grand River, (Grand)  Lowell, (Lowell)  Michigan  (Michigan)

Cedar Waxwing - Bombycilla cedrorum