Words of Promise

 

I'm back here again

in my window chair,

trying to grow my morning poems;

some words of promise

on sunlight yellow paper.

Always praying for

a shower of inspiration,

just a sprinkle of imagination,

an aspiring germination

to grow into creation.

With roots probing

into the fertile soil,

absorbing nourishment,

seeking a firm foundation

in the beloved earth.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Library - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Slow Dance With Green

 

April and May

in Michigan:

a slow dance with green.

First the early wildflowers

emerge from warming soil.

Then the understory

fills with Honeysuckle

and Black Cherry saplings.

Along the edge of the woods,

Redbud and Flowering Dogwood.

Finally, in the canopy,

occupying oaks

produce a profusion

of buds swelling into leaves,

inviting migrating warblers

to lunch in their twigs.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Trout Lilies -  Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

2. Honeysuckle - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Flowering Dogwood - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

4. Red Oak canopy - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

5. Chestnut-sided Warbler - Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Humble Beauty

 

Tender, but tenacious shoots

emerge from the soil.

Arise and expand

into magnificent plants,

reaching for the sun,

yearning for the light.

Flourishing

in humble beauty, like Hepatica,

or flowering with flamboyance 

like Peonies.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Taprooting

 

This land rolls away

in red soil and rabbitbrush.

Utah Junipers are scattered,

nearly equally-spaced,

over the wave of hills,

taprooting just enough moisture

from deep in the ground

to survive slowly, deliberately.

We admire their tenacity;

surviving for ages.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Dinosaur National Monument - Utah

2. Canyonlands National Park - Utah

Soothed

 

A mid-August rain

soaks the thirsty soil.

Signs its signature by

churning the lake's surface.

Listen to it hissing, swishing.

Water splashing water.

Rain softening the earth.

Earth sighing and soothed.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Pickerel Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan

3. Villa Grove, Colorado

Cup of Contentment

 

From the rich, dark soil,

green hands emerge

and stretch toward the sun.

They send a single spike

straight up to support

a swelling flower.

Morning dew clings to soft petals,

then they slowly open

with feminine grace.

And now, in early May,

spring brings this welcome

cup of contentment.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Tulips

 

After months of patience,

buried in the frozen soil,

these bulbous globes

send their shoots up,

break the ground,

grow toward the sun.

Tight green buds

open into soft cups

of delicate petals.

Explode with color,

achieve their days

of fulfillment.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. 2. 3. Home Garden - Cannonsburg, Michigan

4. Holland Tulip Time Festival - Holland, Michigan

360 Days

 

We've waited a long

three hundred sixty days

for a brief view

of this lovely Trout Lily;

newly emerged from

the beige leaf litter,

from the sun-warmed soil

of these spring woods.

It would be worth

a kneel-down,

a minute for a meet-up,

to get to know

her delicate curves

rising between mottled leaves,

and the red-pollened anthers

of its short life span. 

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Canyonlands

 

Under the shadow

of the passing raven's wings,

lichen green clumps of sage

are scattered over red soil

in the silent solitude

of the Canyonlands.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Tractor Days

Crops are emerging

from the warming soil;

corn and soybeans reaching

into the wide sky,

this rural farmland swept

with long summer light,

because farmers

have been working

their long tractor days

and nights.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Amboy, Illinois

2. West Olive, Michigan 

3. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

 

Water into Water

 

Rain is progressing

up the Grand River valley;

softening the rich soil,

placing a sheen on the 

Silver Maple leaves,

dimpling the river's surface.

I watch the river

accept the rain;

water into water,

meandering 

through the landscape

on its silent course.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Grand River - Plainfield Township - Kent County - Michigan

Hopeful Voices

  

It's on these early spring days

that we reconnect with the renewable earth,

as cold soil softens and awakens,

that we sip at the drink of hope.

Eager for the buds to swell

on the tips of tapered twigs.

Earnest for the buds to unfurl

their tender young leaves.

The spring warblers will return

to feed among the trees

for hidden insects and larvae,

and to sing their songs of hope.

Repeating songs of past years.

Fulfilling our anticipation and longing,

as they cast their hopeful voices

into the warming spring air.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Red Maple ~ "Mom & Dad's Farm"

2. American Beech ~ Home Woods

3. Cape May Warbler ~ Cannonsburg (Egypt Valley) State Game Area

Deciduous

 

Right now, under the

brittle shell of winter,

below the insulating snow,

beneath the layer 

of mulching leaves,

within and throughout

the mineralized soil,

live roots and rootlets

angle and tangle,

probe through microbes,

lengthen and strengthen,

stretching and fetching

nourishment for these

wintering deciduous trees.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Lowell Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan 

Inhale

 

That distinctive aroma

in the April atmosphere

when a warm spring rain

first dampens the thirsty soil.

Inhale.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Del Norte, Colorado

Hopeful Harvest

"Thus you have prepared the land: drenching its furrows, softening it with showers, 
blessing its yield." ~ Psalm 65: 9 & 10 

Yesterday,
the leaves of field corn
had begun to curl inward,
from the long drought and heat.

Today,
after a long, soaking rain, 
nearly two inches,
the soil has darkened with moisture,
and the long leaves on cornstalks
expanded again, opening their
dark green palms to the sky.

The fields sigh with relief.
The farmers whisper with gratitude;
hopeful for another harvest.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

Baptized

Silent as seeds
from the soil,
words emerge;

baptized
like a sacrament,

inside the soothing song
of this soft spring rain.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

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

Rainsong

Words emerge,
silent as seeds

germinating
from fertile soil.

Baptized
like a sacrament

inside the song
of this soft spring rain.

Stirring new life
into hibernating senses.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Amboy, Illinois

2. Kent County, Michigan

3. Alamosa, Colorado

4. Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Silent Towers

Rooted in the solid earth,
nourished by mineralized soil,
stretching for the sun's light,

prayers of gratitude
rise from arms
raised toward Heaven.

Such satisfying work.

God, please grant me
the perseverance 
of these trees;
these silent towers
of praise.

Until 
after that final,
wonder-filled journey,

I shall be 
in the light.

And understand
the mystery.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan 

2. Snake River - Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming