Hint of Spring

Breathing, walking, here today.
What comes next is on its way.
Winter here’s a cold, white play.
Spring hints there’ll be more to say.


Text: A one stanza tanaga.

Photos: “Trees Waking Up By Lake Michigan”, above, and “Looking Through a Tree”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “a hint of spring”.

Looking Through a Tree

Indoor Plants

In spite of everything were they
Delighted I stayed home today?
I watered every one and I’ll
Drift into daydreams with a smile.


Photos: “Jade Plant Overhanging”, above, “Indoor Happiness, collage, and “Orchid with Fallen Blossoms, below linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge

News: My poem “Pan’s Pipe” won the Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge for February. Here are the rules for entering this monthly contest.

Indoor Happiness

Orchid with Fallen Blossoms

Wood, Metal, Glass

Reality is all around
To give us things to see
That keep us centered on the ground
While hinting mystery.


Photos: “The Beauty of Wood”, above, and “Wood, Metal, Glass”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “the beauty of wood, the gleam of metal, the reflection of glass”.

Wood, Metal, Glass

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

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Every step mistaken,
Every dream delay
Open arms, forgiven–
Morning shines today.

Text: Linked to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

Photos: “Every Step”, above, and “Morning Light”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “Reasons to be Cheerful”.

Morning Light

 

Mythological Jellyfish

Five hundred million years ago
The jellyfish poem began.
It is sung in the sea. It’s sung on the land.
To sing it again is the plan.

The winds blow the waves.
The waves move along.
The myth is resung
Like an wonderful song.


Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille Monday where Victoria C. Slotto is hosting with the word “poem”.

Photos: “Windblown Jellyfish”, above, and “Found on the Beach”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “Mythological”.

Found on the Beach
Found on the Beach

Earth, Fire, Air, Water

Waves today calmly bounce
Then crawl toward waiting shore.
The air is warm enough for me.
That’s what the sun is for.
Reality is ever near.
It’s patient, does not hide.
I take it all for granted, true,
Still it waits by my side.


Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) with theme word “bounce”.

Photo: “Morning Sun”, above, “Earth, Fire, Air, Water”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “earth, fire, air and water”.

Earth, Fire, Air, Water