Consolation of Rivers

 

I am immensely comforted

by the consolation of rivers.

Wild water flowing freely.

Rapids cradled between mountains.

Water rushing with gravity,

bashing broad boulders

to create whitewater rapids

that pound on my ear drums.

Rivers carrying time,

endlessly into the future.

Washing my words

with exhilaration.

The current singing

the song of my life.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. North Fork Payette River - Idaho

2. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

3. Gibbon Falls - Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

 

Singing Water

 

Water is content, flowing along

quietly, in wide, slow rivers,

but it remembers its youth,

and how it loved to sing.

First, trickling over stones,

later dancing with boulders.

Pouring down the shoulders of mountains,

respecting gravity, gathering in the valleys.

Exuberant in its voice,

joyful in its journey.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Snake River - Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

2. Grand River - Kent County - Michigan

3. Middle Fork Flathead River - Glacier National Park

4. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

5. Payette River - Idaho

Cobble of Stones

 

I approach this large lake,

and enter the shallow water,

barefooting across

a cobble of stones.

Wincing, "ouching", trying

to absorb the pain,

until it's deep enough

to dive in and swim,

then float freely

in the cool, refreshing water

of Jackson Lake,

while gazing at the amazing

Grand Tetons.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Jackson Lake - Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming

waterlines

 

footprints in the sand

making a small impression

by the waterlines

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Lake Michigan ~Ludington State Park - Michigan

Pool of Poetry

 

My pen is poised

over this yellow pad

like a heron's beak

above the river's surface.

Ready to plunge

for a choice word

swimming in the dark water.

Probing the possibilities,

within the pool of poetry.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. North Fort Myers, Florida

2. Rogue River - Rockford, Michigan

Translator

 

How to become a translator

of the language

of moving water:

Be out there, listening,

with ears that hear,

and a feeling of gratitude.

Understand that it cannot

be interpreted using mere words;

but expressed only with

a receptive heart

and a grateful awareness

of your current blessings.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

2. Payette River - Idaho 

Pleasant Peninsulas

 

In Michigan,

we live on one of two

pleasant peninsulas,

surrounded by inland seas.

Superior.

Michigan.

Huron.

Erie.

Plus, we have about 

twelve-thousand

inland lakes.

In the late 20th century,

our license plates boasted:

"Water-Winter Wonderland".

It's true.

We would appreciate

an exploratory visit

from you.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Arcadia, Michigan

2. Grand Haven State Park & Lighthouse ~ Michigan

3. Pickerel Lake Park - Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County - Michigan

4. Wabasis Lake Park & Campground - Kdingent County - Michigan

5. Ludington State Park - Ludington, Michigan

Watching and Waiting

 

I approach this mountain stream

with deep respect and admiration.

Walking upstream,

along the boulder-strewn bank,

accented with spruce

and Ponderosa Pines.

The sound of rushing water

is like a friend coming toward me;

it flows with companionship,

that I currently need more of.

I keep watching and waiting,

until it's time to move on.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Payette River - McCall, Idaho

2.  Elk River - Steamboat Springs, Colorado

The Poetry of Water

 

It's difficult to translate

the meaning of words

the mountain stream carries

as it hurries through the canyon;

bashing big boulders,

splashing through the rapids.

Elsewhere, the poetry of water slows

and swirls into clear pools;

transparent with nuance,

tranquil with meaning.

I kneel for a closer look.

Fine grasses and golden sky light 

reflect on the smooth surface.

Through the clear lens of water

I examine the bottom of the pool

and read in the rippled sand

the words collected there:

Slow down. Be still.

Observe the smallest

contours of creation.

But this poem 

does not end

here.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado

2. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

3. Santa Catalina Mountains - Arizona

 

 

Kaleidoscope

 

These attractive stones

lying on the bottom

of the Kootenai River

are massaged by

the continuous current,

magnified by shallow water;

turned into a kaleidoscope 

of moving, liquid color.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Kootenai River, Montana

Water into Ice

Water into water.

Turbulent into tranquil.

Merging. Converging.

Water into ice.

Blending. 

Ending the pain.

Mending your wounds.

Tending your hurting heart.

Ascending to a better place. 

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: 

Pickerel Lake Park ~ Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Kent County - Michigan 

 

Autumn Gold Attitude

 

You are that leaf

freshly fallen

onto the small stream.

Floating first on smooth water,

then riding the ripples

above a bed of pebbles,

then over rocks

and rising rapids

to be churned and turned

and twisted underwater.

At last settling

near a sidebank

in a festival of colors

where your

autumn gold attitude

still reflects the sun.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grand River - Knapp Street Bridge - Kent County, Michigan

2. Page Creek - Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

3. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michiagn

Losing Transparency

 

When the rainshowers began,

the lake lost its transparency,

removed its reflection.

Ten-thousand shivers

danced on the water.

Absolute acceptance.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

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

Impressions

 

Way up here,

in northeast New England,

I climb the granite slope

that slides into the Atlantic.

Kelp clings to wet boulders

at low tide.

At the top of the ridge,

pines and spruce anchor in the sparse soil.

A thin fog creates

a satin veil over the water.

Small islands, mounded and forested,

rise from the quiet bay.

First impressions

are lasting impressions

from my first visit to

Acadia National Park.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor, Maine

Edge of Time

 

Standing firmly

on the sand dunes

above Lake Michigan,

I'm intrigued, again, to view

the barely perceptible

curvature of the earth.

Contemplating the infinite horizon

where water meets the sky

at the edge of time.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore - Empire, Michigan

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

Floating Reflections

 

Resilient reeds rise

from the silky water

of evening.

Contours of 

cream-colored clouds

undulate on the surface.

Floating reflections

stroking the

wavering reeds.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Pickerel Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan

Until

 

The farther up this trail I go,

the fewer people I see,

until I'm in the company of quiet.

Until I reach this rushing stream

and sit on a boulder to listen

to the talking waters.

Studying the current

rolling over rocks,

bending around boulders.

Silver veins of water

tumbling in turmoil,

falling freely with grace.

Until these words

 flow into lines

of liquid poetry.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Yellowstone National Park

Footprints

 

Jesus left no footprints

on the water he walked upon,

but he left an impression

over two-thousand years deep.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Sanibel Island, Florida

2. Ludington State Park, Michigan

Small Treasures

 

How many years did it take

for these stones to slowly migrate

from the depths of Lake Superior?

How many years have they

been blasted by wind-driven sand

along this brutal coast?

To be shaped flat and smooth

into ovals and circles

in a spectrum of colors?

But it only takes a few  minutes

to lift a few out of packed sand

with grateful fingers;

small treasures of granite

sculpted by water, wind, 

sand, and time.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Whitefish Point Light Station - Lake Superior - Michigan