Category: Photography

Winter’s Grey and Sparkling White

Saturday afternoon the snow started slowly. Being warm the flakes became thick. I started my walk catching some of it, missing most of it. I am not aware enough to be aware of everything. I must leave some for the saint’s creative contemplation or the monk’s mindful meditation.

The snow came down thicker and more beautifully as I walked back through sparkling white. I did not expect so late in my grey year to have so many blessings as if my impatience and despair had been forgiven.

GREY SKY WITH WHITE OWL
WAITING IN THE SNOW-FILLED TREE
LOOK–HE FLIES AWAY

 

Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday.  Björn is hosting with the theme “grey”.  I am also linking to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

Photos: “Snow on Bush”, above, and “Snow on Branch”, below.

Snow on Branch

Outside

Snow wraps white.
Sky beams blue.
Winter’s night–
Calmly true.

Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar.  I will be hosting and the theme is brevity with poems five lines or less.  There are no other constraints.  The pub opens at 3:00 PM EST.

Photos: “Sidewalk and Freshly Plowed Snow”, above, and “Winter Sunset”, below, linked to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “in my life”.

Winter Sunset

Murmuring Thoughts

If I murmur, talk or sing
Guard the magic with this ring.
Hold the thought and come what may
Let the sacred children play.
Understand but don’t read through.
Spirit will enlighten you.
Then forgive and what we’ve done
May be forgiven. Life’s begun.

Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) with the word “murmur”.  Because of the lines about forgiveness I am linking this to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.  I don’t know what this poem means.  It just murmured its way here.

Photos: “Icicles in the Sun”, above, and “More Icicles”, below, taken at noon on this relatively warm winter’s day.

More Icicles
More Icicles

The Look of Love

Winter locks the door on Spring
Frigid in the sack.
There’s snow and trees without their leaves.
Clean white suggests a lack
Unless it’s looking back.

Text: I am trying a variation of Japanese tanka that William N. Porter used to translate the The Hyakunin-isshu in 1909.  He used five iambic lines of 8-6-8-6-6 syllables with an end-rhyme on the shorter lines.  There should be a pivot of the meaning at the third line separating and then reconnecting the top and bottom two lines.

Photos: “Snow Capped”, above, “Love of Winter”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “the look of love”.

Love of Winter

Hands and Eyes

I hold you with an aging hand.
Winter let go fall.
Even sparrows understand.
It takes no time at all.
Eyes and hands recall.

Text: Linked to dVerse Open Link Night.  Kim is hosting.  I am aiming for brevity in this poem.  In particular I want to use no more than five lines.  I hope to present brevity as a challenge for next week’s Meeting the Bar.

Photos: “Snow and Shadow”, above, “Blooming Together”, below.

Blooming Together

Pentimento

I sometimes think I change my mind
To fit prevailing wind.
It only matters that I find
Amidst these changes I was kind.
If not, well, then I’ve sinned.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Amaya is hosting with the theme “pentimento”.

Photo: “Morning Rays of Light” that I am linking to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge since this sunrise looks “exotic” to me which is the theme this week.

News: Yesterday I joined a local poetry group, Poets and Patrons.  They host annual poetry contests and the Helen Schaible International Shakespearean Petrarchan Sonnet Contest.

Home

The thought of riding my bicycle up and down Indiana State Road 55 and even getting as far as DeMotte, exhausted and proud because we also got back, makes me realize today how big I felt our world was back then no matter how small it actually was by other measurements. Like burrowing rodents on a communal challenge, we knew that trip my brother and I took to DeMotte broke important, new ground.

There was a hill half a mile from the prairie farm we had to climb to reach our destination. We were told to be careful because cars could not see us. We were careful, at least on our bikes, or lucky that few cars usually drive that rural road. I wondered why that hill was there at all considering how flat everywhere else was. At the time I reasoned that even the slightest elevation, say a foot, must be caused by a dinosaur’s body lying somewhere below. I wanted to dig them up and then keep going to China.

I can still see that hill, but I can’t find it for sure on Google Maps. The information online does put in perspective most of the places I heard and imagined as a child. “So that’s where they are!” I tell myself. However, I don’t need an online map for that hill. Even in my memory it remains difficult to bike up, but fun to ride down.

QUIET CORN AND BEANS
GROWING ON DEEP PRAIRIE SOIL
CHILDREN RUSHING BY

Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday.  Mish is hosting with the theme “hometown”.

Photo: “Trees in Winter”