Ghosted

 

This tall cottonwood

rises above the frozen lake.

Frosted by winter fog.

Ghosted by morning light.

Astonishing my sensitivity. 

Dazzling  my grateful eyes.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

Tracks

I returned to the boot tracks
I left in the snowfield
the day before yesterday.

Today, they contained tiny seeds
from Mullein and Evening Primrose,
blown in by the winter wind.

Today, a batch of Horned Larks
and Dark-eyed Juncos
are feeding in the trough of my tracks.

© 2026 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Kent County - Michigan

3. Buena Vista, Colorado

4. Madera Canyon - Arizona

December's Silent Night

 

Among the gratuitous

gifts of winter:

A large, rounded Cottonwood

feathered in frost.

Racks and stacks of firewood,

cured to be burned for our warmth.

Dark bones of trees stretch

long arms into cold air.

Ice Bells suspended 

above Bear Creek.

Loyal Northern Cardinals

bringing vibrant color to snowy days.

The dim glow of January sun

trying to melt persistent icicles.

The snow falling through

December's silent night.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

2, 3, 6, & 7. Home Yard & Home Woods

4. & 5. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

Many Rooms

 

On this annual occurance

of crocuses and daffodils,

we can congratulate ourselves

on sursviving another

long, West Michigan winter.

Now we patiently wait and watch

as the brown and gray woods

absorb energy from the sun and

transform into a green mansion

where we can walk in many rooms.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. & 2. Home Garden

3. Home Woods

Remembering Seasons

 

We walk

through the seasons of our lives.

The snow, the cold, the blizzards.

The rain, the heat, the thunderstorms.

Wildflowers emerge in the spring woods.

Tree buds swell and unfurl new leaves.

Vibrant autumn colors

flare briefly, then die.

Winter sun slides by low in the sky.

Summer sun climbs high.

We live our lives alive,

try to thrive in each season;

remembering.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Pickerel Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan

4. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

5. Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Winter Angels

 

In this forgotten cropfield

that once grew soybeans,

it's a day in late winter,

still below freezing,

with a trace of snow remaining.

Sandhill Cranes toss stems and leaves.

With the slightest wing thrust

they rise effortlessly

eight feet up, then settle down

like winter angels.

They dance and call

and flare their wings

and toss and dance

and wait for spring.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home Fields - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Trophy

 

This Cottonwood tree,

its stout branches

feathered with frost,

stands statuesque

in serene solitude,

and solemn silence;

a silver trophy

earned and given 

for your endurance

and perseverance

into late winter.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: 

1. McCarthy Lake - Kent County - Michigan

2. St.Patrick Church - Parnell, Michigan

Winterwood

 

This wood, just added to the fireplace,

I cut and split and stacked

two years ago last November

to warm this January night.

And the sound of your voice

above the crackling fire

makes us comfortable with each other

and our fifty-three years together.

I do my part to keep the fire burning hot.

Knowing the dead trees in our woods

will be placed in the fireplace

a few more winters from tonight.

And how these words, also,

have been stacked and cured.

Not knowing when they'd be used

to finish this winter poem.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Released

 

The interior voice keeps rising, 

slowly, like bubbles flowing below

the thin ice of a winter stream.

Ready to emerge and be heard,

or to be read and concurred.

The poet keeps writing,

the words keep rising,

hoping to be released.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations: Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

Erect

 

These golden towers of September,

erect on their stiff stalks,

catch your outside eye

as they flare in the wind.

They dominate

the early autumn landscape

before aging into

weathered gray flags.

Finally, to rise above

deep winter snows,

erect on stiff stalks. 

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. 2. & 3. Kent County - Michigan

Filling

Our loyal cardinals

brought vibrant color

to a gray and white winter.

And on summer evenings,

they pierce the silence

with sharp, bold whistles.

Filling the air with song.

Filling my ears with music.

Filling my eyes with gratitude.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. & 3. Home Woods

 

Return Flight

 

I'll try to put myself

inside the head

of a friend 

from Viet Nam,

who lives in 

Miami and Naples

when she comes to 

Grand Haven

or Traverse City

during a winter

in West Michigan

to experience

for the first time

snow crystals 

falling on her face

and how wind chill

feels on her skin

when the temperature

is eight below zero

and the wind is

blowing at twenty-four

miles per hour

gusting to thirty

and the stubborn

overcast has persisted

for nearly five weeks.

Then if she

stays a few days

and is patient

enough to listen

while dressed

in flannel and fleece

I will lift up the

handy mitten map

of Lower Michigan

conveniently located

at the end

of my left arm

and proceed

to explain

"Lake Effect" snow

as she's reaching

into her purse

to check the

departure time

of her

return flight.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

 

winter heart

 

in January

sun glow pouring through windows

warms my winter heart

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: 

Home Windows - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Love of Winter

 

The snow is falling

through a silent night

in late December.

Highlighting

diagonal branches

on barren trees.

A dream-like scene

accumulating enough reality

to crystalize your love of winter.

© 2024 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. & 2. Seidman Park - Kent County - Michigan

3. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan 

The Shiny Ocean

 

I long to hear the song

of the shiny ocean

gliding onto shallow shores,

polishing the slopes of sand

with a brief shimmering light;

again, again, and again.

I want to return

to the seashore

to watch the Willets

dancing in and out,

leaving tiny tracks

along the reach of the surf.

To witness Brown Pelicans

flying in formation

skimming close to the surface, then

plunging their massive bodies

headlong into the water;

a scoop of cold fish soup.

After these many winters

hiking dry desert washes,

I thirst for the sensation

of waves washing my feet,

and the wide horizon curving away,

carrying shiny ocean dreams.

© 2023 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1.  Beverly Beach State Park - Oregon

2. La Jolla, California

3. Barefoot Beach - Florida

4. Barefoot Beach - Naples, Florida 

5. Sanibel Island - Florida

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