plump black squirrel
resting on his haunches
between courses
good morning sunshine
even the fallen leaves
dance in delight
Linked to dVerse Open Link Night. Haiku by Pat Kopanda.
Seeing Better
Whatever part I’m here to play
I hope I play it well.
Although the vision of the day
With ugliness may get its way
May beauty cast some spell.
Linked to dVerse Poetics. Mish is hosting with the theme “beauty in ugliness”.
Photo: “Ugly Cracks”, above, and “Ugly Fungus”, below.
River Snow by Liu Zongyuan
千山鳥飛絕，
萬徑人蹤滅。
孤舟簑笠翁，
獨釣寒江雪。
No flights of birds past mountains,
No footprints will paths show.
An old man only from his boat
Is fishing through the snow.
Linked to dVerse Pub Talk. Bjorn is hosting and the theme is translation. The above is my translation of Liu Zongyuan’s Tang dynasty poem, “River Snow”. It is number 244 in the 300 Tang Poems anthology.
Photos: “Through a Window with Rain Drops”, above, and “River White with Blooms”, below.
Inside
Inside is where it all gets real.
Despair destroys the dance:
Feet won’t move. Then comes that song
That lets forgiveness sing along
To give us one more chance.
Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “inside” and to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.
Photos: “Inside the Chicago Botanic Garden”, above, and “In Up Close with Sun Rays”, below.
Harvest
Here is my post at Prairie Writers Guild.
Harvesting Corn in October
Lines of clouds cross through October’s sky.
Lines of corn mark Indiana fields.
Harvesters remove dried grain and I
Prepare my heart and wonder what it yields?
Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. Frank Hubeny, member of Prairie Writers Guild, will be hosting at dVerse on Thursday, October 11th, starting at 3:00 PM EST with the theme of iambic pentameter.
Sweet Potatoes
Frank
The name means “free”, or so I have been told.
I share it with my ancestors as well.
May freedom bring its blessings to us all—
Forgetting not the smallest one of us.
Linked to dVerse Poetics. Amaya Engleking is hosting with the theme to take our names and write about them.
This Thursday, I will be hosting Meeting the Bar at dVerse with the theme of iambic pentameter in general. This poem is an example of iambic pentameter used in blank verse.
Photos: “Pumpkin Pile”, above, and “Orderly and Free”, below.
Yuck
Yuck is such a yucky word.
It closes every opened door.
It claims whatever’s true’s absurd
Demanding always something more.
Demanding something nicer, too,
Nicer than this yucky place.
Demands. Demands. What can one do
Stumbling over old and new,
Stumbling over smiling grace?
Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) with the word “yuck”.
Photos: “Looking Down”, above, and “Looking Through”, below”
The Blues and the Golds
Comfort Smells
Smell the dawn through breaths of air
Walking past these waters where
Quietly the healing night
Opens up with morning light.
Linked to dVerse Poetics. Gina is hosting with the theme “comfort smells”.
Photos: “Morning Mist”, above, and “Morning Air”, below.
One
On a morning walk I am like a bee in search of nectar knowing this richness hides behind color, knowing it could be anywhere and then seeing it, there, right there, in one flower with yellow petals and drops of dew. I put the phone close to it and take a picture trying to see the drops of dew on the leaves but who knows what the photo will show? It isn’t me looking anymore.
Or there it is, in that one tree, in the distance blessed with morning sunbeams, surrounded by the branches and trunk of a nearby tree and below by a soccer field, standing out as one among many trees right now. Even the mistiness of this morning singles this one tree out hiding all those in the background. Just one tree, right now, over there, and why do my eyes find it so beautiful?
YELLOW BLOOMS ATTRACT
LIKE GREEN THIS MISTY MORNING
SUMMER SAYS GOODBYE
Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday where qbit/Randall is hosting with the theme of one’s self en masse.
Photos: “Soccer Field in the Morning”, above, and “Each One”, below.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 