Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

Man Made Meets Mother Nature

The shoin house is simply made.
It looks upon the pond.
Nature tolerates that, too.
She’s proud to see what we can do,
How pretty we respond.

Nature doesn’t simulate.
She plays the game for keeps.
We assume we know it all.
We reach the cliffs. We brag. We fall.
She cradles, dreams and sleeps.

Photos: “Shoin House”, above, and “Drain in Forest Preserve”, below, both by the author. The shoin house is part of the Chicago Botanic Garden and the drain is in Somme Woods.  They are linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “Man Made Meets Mother Nature”. The bottom one is for trablogger’s Mundane Monday.

Drain in Forest Preserve

Ode to My Imaginary Friend

Her hair is iridescent blue.
Her mind is God-knows-where.
The air she breathes is truly true
As if she wasn’t there.

We talk about philosophy.
She won’t admit she’s wrong.
So long with rationality.
Be obstinately strong.

The monsters deep beneath my bed
Are fearful of her sight
As might the monsters overhead
When she turns out their light.

I trust she’ll always have my back.
She won’t lead me astray.
She stays my mind when doubts attack
And shadows come to play.

Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I am hosting and the theme will be odes, poems of praise–praising whatever, any or no form.

Photos: “Only Shadows” by the author.

Is the Sun Conscious?

What we believe about someone
May not be wholly true.
We calculate the outside stuff
And measure till we’re sure enough,
But when we think we’re finally done,
Our doubts then surface, too.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics where Lillian is hosting with the request to write a poem on one of four photos from ESA/Hubble.

Photo: I picked the first photo, below, from Lillian’s list with credit to ESA, NASA and L. Calçada (ESO); ESA/Hubble.

Artist's concept of exoplanet orbiting Fomalhaut Credit: ESA, NASA and L. Calçada (ESO); ESA/Hubble
Artist’s concept of exoplanet orbiting Fomalhaut Credit: ESA, NASA and L. Calçada (ESO); ESA/Hubble

YouTube Video: A few months ago I found out that there are people today who think that stars generally might be conscious.   Source: machc1234golf

 

An Ode to Forgiveness

Forgiveness kicks us out of hell
Where we prefer to stay.
It’s warmer where the devils dwell,
But we are on our way.

Where shall we go?
We do not know.
We are, right now, and anyhow,
Kicked out to breathe a brighter day.

Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille where De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) is hosting and to Debbie Roth’s Forgiveness Fridays.  I am practicing odes, poems of praise, because his Thursday I will be featuring odes on dVerse Meeting the Bar.

Photos: “And Then There Was a Rainbow” by the author.

Don’t Bump Me in the Night

What’s spooky in November
Fireworks my fear.
Bumps and groans
And nighttime moans
Entertain my ears.

Photos: “What Goes Bump in the Night”, above, and “Spooky Plants”, below, by the author and linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “What Goes Bump in the Night” and, since I think they are all mundane enough, trablogger’s Mundane Monday.

Spooky Plants

The Porch as Chair

He used the floor of the cabin’s open porch as a chair dangling his legs. The chickens were safe. The dog was safe.

He figured if he couldn’t see it, it wasn’t there. No fairies. No unicorns. The trees weren’t watching. The sun didn’t care. He was safe.

Then he saw her walk up his long path. She was watching him for some time and decided to make her move. She needed a place to stay. After they spoke his understanding of safety expanded to include her.

Now they both sat on the porch. He promised to make chairs.

Text: Linked to Charli Mills’ Carrot Ranch 99-word Flash Fiction Challenge. The theme is a chair on a porch. Come join us writing flash fiction.

News: Last Wednesday the Prairie Writers Guild held a dinner in Rensselaer, Indiana, celebrating the publication of the fourteenth volume of their series From the Edge of the Prairie. Some of my haibun, which appeared previously on this blog, are in that volume. They print the anthology in Rensselaer. Although I have been a member for only the past year I have known some of the people in the guild for decades having grown up in northwest Indiana.

Their Mysterious Eyes — #writephoto

The arc’s reflection made an eye.
They laughed when I asked, “Can it see?”
What’s looking at us walking by
May laugh and measure differently.
The dark might have its ways to know
A brighter truth that it won’t show.
Let us walk. I do not mind.
I hope those eyes like what they find.

Text: Linked to Sue Vincent’s #writephoto, Jane Dougherty’s November Yeats Challenge Day 2 and dVerse Open Link Night where Grace is hosting.

Images: Provided by Sue Vincent for the #writephoto prompt.

Sue Vincent's #writephoto icon

 

Raiding the Castle on the Rocky Coast –#writephoto

Why would someone build a castle there
Where soil is scarce and little wants to grow
Except for moss and plants who only care
I do not trample on them as I go?
Why do I bother making secrets show,
Break down their walls, expose some inner thing,
Pretend this makes me worthy to be king?

Linked to Sue Vincent’s #writephoto who also provided the photo.

Sue Vincent's #writephoto icon