Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

the year shows its age,
 a coating of rust flushes
  the hilltops.

three crows circled up.
 their conversational look
  makes me nervous.

old pond,
 a frog jumps:
  "plop-splash!"

Original: 古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音; Romanized: furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

crossing a clearing,
 a deer disappears before
  eyes can lock on it.

a rotten log:
 turned into a work of art
  by fungi.

in the morning,
 a fresh blanket of snow
  makes the world look new.
 by day's end, it's well-trodden:
  a car driven off the lot.

with taut anchor line,
 the fisherman's boat looks still
  in flowing waters.

Spring wildflowers
 cluster among the rocks; 
  sheep bells clang nearby.

a road parts the woods,
 one lane splits up nature...
  or does it?

bee-eater sits still --
 not searching, not flitting:
  worried of bee's plight?