DAILY PHOTO: From Prague Castle on an Overcast Day

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Photograph taken from Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) toward Charles Bridge (Karlův most) and the Vltava River on a cloudy day.

Forbidden [Free Verse]

A photograph taken inside Beijing's Forbidden City in the Summer of 2008.
One afternoon, in the
Forbidden City,
People roam about --
Sightseeing.

The very next morning,
A single line of tracks
Through freshly fallen snow
Cuts across the very
Same yard.

PROMPT: Ambitious DIY

Daily writing prompt
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

Trying to get squirrels out of the attic. They did me like Macaulay Culkin / Kevin McCallister in Home Alone. Ultimately, had to call experts (pest control, not hitmen,) and they made short work of it.

Snow Squirrel [Haiku]

Photograph of a squirrel on snow on Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec.
chubby squirrel
scampers across crusty snow --
crunchlessly!

Winter Woods [Haiku]

Photograph taken at Paces Mill Park.
Winter forest:
no creatures stir --
waterfall sound.

DAILY PHOTO: A Scene from Angkor Wat

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A photograph taken from upstairs in Angkor Wat, looking down at the wall and jungle beyond.

“Drinking Wine, no. 5” [饮酒·其五] by Tao Qian [陶潜] (a.k.a. Tao Yuanming [陶渊明])

Taken in Hartwell, Georgia.
I live amid a busy town,
But traffic sounds are never heard.

How can this possibly be true?

Deep in the mind, all is remote.

Picking 'mums by the eastern fence,
I peer at distant South Mountains.
Sunset flares in garish color.
Birds flock home in lines and clusters.
The scene conveys some great meaning,
But words to express it fail me.

NOTES: “Drinking Wine, no. 5” [饮酒·其五] is one of Tao Qian’s [陶潜] “Twenty Poems on Drinking Wine” [饮酒二十首.] It is the best-known piece from the collection. The original poem in Simplified Chinese script is:

结 庐 在 人 境,
而 无 车 马 喧.
问 君 何 能 尔?
心 远 地 自 偏.
采 菊 东 篱 下,
悠 然 见 南 山.
山 气 日 夕 佳,
飞 鸟 相 与 还.
此 中 有 真 意,
欲 辨 已 忘 言.

I’ve started reading a review copy of Arthur Sze’s Transient Worlds (from Copper Canyon Press, due out April 14, 2026.) The first chapter discusses this poem and various translations of it, encouraging readers to make their own translation. This is mine. For more information about the book, see: https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/transient-worlds-arthur-sze/

PROMPT: Ban

Daily writing prompt
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

I would replace all adverbs with a loud “HONK!”

Why do I do anything, because I think it would be funny. [Granted, only for a short time.]

Beetle [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of beetle in Botswana, near the Chobe River.
A Beetle that was built like a tank
Crawled over a blazing riverbank
Now as any sane one would think
It should head straight for the drink
To cool off its little ole toes.
But as astute readers will know,
It hasn't really got any toes,
So, it can walk hot sands real slow.

The Regal Eagle [Lyric Poem]

A photograph of an African Fish Eagle taken in Chobe National Park in Botswana.
No bird ever seemed quite so regal
As a quietly perching eagle.
But it's not so much like a king
When it dismounts, to take wing --
Cause that bird has to work for its living.