Summer Theatre

 

He sat close to the window;

writing, and watching summer mature.

As the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

zipped and sipped at the feeders and flowers.

And the Sandhill Cranes

yodeled from nearby wetlands.

As the White Water Lilies

floated their purity upon the lake.

And White-tailed Deer raised

another generation of fawns.

As wheat, stretching straight and tall,

ripened green to gold in dense rows.

And fireflies flashed green-yellow lights

in the silky dusk of evening.

As frequent thundershowers

kept the heartland green.

And the window to his world offered

daily scenes of summer theatre.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Feeders

2. McCarthy Lake

3. McCarthy Lake

4. Home Fields

5. Home Fields

6. Home Woods

7. Home Fields

Intentions

Does God recognize
my intentions;
when I praise him 
in a poem?

When I ponder
his performance
in the theater
of nature?

When I give him
the glory
by sharing the composition
of his creation?

What secret syllables,
what worshiping words
do I need to convert
this fragmented poem
into a personal prayer
of praise?

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Butchart Gardens - Victoria,  British Columbia 

Midnight Stage

Try to measure the great gaps
between the stars;
the width, the depth of the universe.

Within this eternal theater,
the black curtain of night
reveals familiar constellations.

Orion and Cassiopeia,
accent these winter skies
on this calm, cold night.

You are invited to watch 
the silent performance 
of ten-thousand stars 
burning on this midnight stage.

© 2015 Richard Havenga

Dreams of Birds

Birds of late evening
enter this theater of leaves,
and disappear in the green balcony.

As another dusk deepens,
their grip on twigs tightens,
then some kind of sleep happens.

Do they dream of sheltering trees,
or immaculate folds of bright cumulus,
as they sail vast oceans of sky?

©  2014  Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods

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

Curtain Closing

Here in these mountains
time seems to linger longer.

This silver fringe
of evening clouds
is the curtain closing
on this summer day.

A theater filled 
with the blessings
of creation.

On stage,
a hint of God's presence.

In the audience,
a grateful people.

©  2014  Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Gunnison, (Gunnison)  Colorado (Colorado)