Yellow Voice

 

The song of the Yellow Warbler,

bubbling up from the wetlands,

was carried on the spring breeze,

like pollen from the scrub willows

in which he perched;

while singing sweet notes

with his yellow voice.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Gavin Lake - Kent County - Michigan

2. Wabasis Lake - Kent County - Michigan

Release

 

Narrow, golden pennants

cling to flexible willow braids

waiting for November's release.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

2. Crooked Lake - Kent County - Michigan

Under a November Sky

 

I am huddled under

a dull November sky,

ready to start my run,

eager to have it done.

I'm searching for remnants of beauty

along this remote country course:

Brittle leaves on cornstalks

are rattling in erratic winds.

The brown cigars of cattails

are swaying on stiff stems.

Congregations of starlings

mass and merge in leafless trees.

Tamaracks are fading from gold

to tan and dropping soft needles.

Stripped trees ready for slumber

are standing dormant until spring.

An aggressive southwest wind

is whisking through bare branches.

Dark silhouettes of willow trunks

stand steadfast in the wetlands.

Thin crystals of early ice form 

geometric patterns in shallow wetlands.

I'm finding fragments of beauty

under this fine November sky.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Rogue River - Rockford, Michigan

3. Canon Township - Kent County - Michigan

4. Vergennes Township - Kent County - Michigan

5. Home Woods Wetland

Narrow

I would like to be the narrowest twig

at the end of a narrow scrub willow branch

that a Yellow Warbler grasps

with its narrow, scaled toes

for the few seconds it takes

to snatch a hidden larva.

Singing while feeding,

sipping the spring air

through narrow nostrils,

then vanishing from view.

As light as the air it flies through.

A pinnacle in this thin tract of time.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

A Higher Place

 

A fresh morning breeze strokes

the slender fingers of willows.

They undulate vertically

above the small pond.

They return old memories

of my twelve-year-old self,

when I expertly climbed

their thick, spreading limbs;

seeking refuge and solitude

in a secret, higher place

to think about important matters:

like the death of my grandpa,

and how high above the blue sky

heaven might be,

and if he can hear me

from up here.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Cascade, Michigan

2. Thornapple River - Ada Dam - Kent County - Michigan

3. Blythefield Memory Gardens - Kent County - Michigan

Three Season Dance

An arching willow branch

dangles in the Thornapple River,

dancing with the current.

Resistance meets persistence.

The dance goes on...

lasts for three seasons.

Then the ice comes.

The music stops.

© 2021 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

Leslie Tassell Park - Cascade Township - Kent County - 

Grand River - Kent County - Michigan

  

Saturday Morning Backroads V

 

This is the fifth in a series titled: "Saturday Morning Backroads"...

Each time I leave home, I am blessed

to drive past Bear Creek;

but I don't just drive past,

I stop to explore with my camera,

especially in the glorious month of October.

A few miles south of home,

I love to run this one-lane dirt road

especially when the Sugar Maple leaves

are falling gently upon my face and shoulders.

If I'm running "around the block",

a five-mile loop through farm country,

 I am blessed to view our beautiful church:

St. Patrick's of Parnell. 

Above the Flat River

in Fallasburg Park,

I watch a leave's last dance

and its return to the earth.

In the rural countryside,

within white fences,

I admire this centennial farmhouse,

and the thick carpet of  Sugar Maple leaves.

Golden-green veils

of Weeping Willows

frame a Mute Swan

on Big Crooked Lake.

Back home, in my own woods,

I am rewarded by the vibrant leaves

of American Beech, with green midribs,

parallel veins, and sharply acute apex.

I am blessed to live where I live;

grateful for these gifts,

to be able to drive

and run these country roads.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

 

Photo Locations:

1. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. St. Patrick's Church _ Parnell, Michigan

4. Fallasburg Park - Kent County - Michigan

5. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

6. Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

7. Big Crooked Lake - Kent County - Michigan

8. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Please view and read previous posts of "Saturday Morning Backroads":

Saturday Morning Backroads IV ~ October 19, 2015

Saturday Morning Backroads III ~ July 10, 2015

Saturday Morning Backroads II ~ October 8, 2014

Saturday Morning Backroads ~ June 6, 2012

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

Winter Willow

fresh snow overnight

weeping willow in winter

thin fog meets blue sky

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

Murray Lake - Kent County - Michigan

Golden Braids

A Weeping Willow
turning yellow into gold
lingers into November.

I watch the autumn breeze
weave slender twigs
into golden braids. 

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Location:

1. Big Crooked Lake - Kent County - Michigan

2. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

Accepting

Extending from rigid
willow branches,
flexible yellow braids
bend in the breeze,
curve in the current;
yielding, yet resilient. 

Supple as slow thought.
Accepting what is  given.
Anticipating what is to come:

from the wind in the willows,
from the rapids in the river,
from the surprises in life.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Big Crooked Lake - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

2. Leslie E. Tassell Park - Cascade Township - Kent County - Michigan

3. Thornapple River - Ada Township - Kent County - Michigan

4. McCarthy Lake - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michgan

This Interval of Now

A weeping willow
persists deep into November
listens to the cooling winds.

I watch the autumn breeze
weave slender twigs
into golden braids.

Although I feel time 
pulling me along,
I prefer to inhabit
this interval of now.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy: 

"Lingering" ~ November 16, 2012

"Translation" ~ April 15, 2013

Photo Locations:

1. McCarthy Lake - Kent County, Michigan 

2. Crooked Lake - Kent County, Michigan  

joining

slender willow twigs

joining lake and marbled clouds

touching the future

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Cascade Township - Kent County, Michigan 

watercolor willow

soft greens and yellows 

this watercolor willow

washed warm by the sun

© 2017 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Pickerel Lake Park / Fred Meijer Nature Preserve

Starting the Day

A few miles west of here, I hear
the bells of St. Patrick's Church
announce the start of 9 o'clock mass.

Here, at Murray Lake,
I'm sitting in the grass,
my backrest is a boulder.

Small bass patrol the shallows
while shallower still, minnows
swim in schools of protection.

A Yellow Warbler is singing
"sweet-sweet-sweet, sweeter-than-sweet,"
from an arching twig of willow.

Spring has ripened into summer.
Swallows sweep low to the lake.
The morning breeze strokes the surface.

I am writing into words
what I see, hear, and feel;
bliss for my senses, 

but thinking and praying
for the home bound, the handicapped 
from St. Patrick's parish.

Offering thanks for my blessings,
as I contemplate the comfortable 
start of this new day outdoors.

© 2017 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy: The Bells of St. Patrick's ~ May 14, 2015

Photo Locations:

1. St. Patrick Church - Parnell, Michigan

2. Murray Lake - Parnell, Michigan

3. Yellow Warbler @ Wabasis Lake - Michigan

4. Pickerel Lake Park & Fred Meijer Nature Preserve - Cannonsburg, Michigan