Category Archives: nature

Urban Forest [Haiku]

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deer eyes walker.
 jumbo jets scream overhead,
  but it heard stick crack.

Lily Pac-Man [Senryū]

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Pac-Men multiply:
 sought by too few upside-down 
  lily “ghosts.”

Cross Movement [Haiku]

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water flows - mutely -
 below the train which roars 
  through, hourly

So Many Eyes [Haiku]

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one butterfly:
 with so many eyes 
  that cannot see.

Summer Reeds [Haiku]

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late Summer: 
 the last days before 
  reed heads fluff.

Orange Earth [Haiku]

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fallen blossoms
 carpet the ground,
  mottled by sunlight.

Buds & Blossoms [Haiku]

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buds & blossoms,
 in vibrant red, gussy up
  a dreary cityscape.

River’s Rise [Lyric Poem]

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Stumps are underwater.
 The pebble beach is gone.
 Floating docks slant downstream
 as fast waters roll on. 

Detritus on pylons:
  a beaver dam of wood.
  Coffee brown waters flow
  where yesterday I stood.

Will the levees stand strong
  until the surge recedes?
  Will the flood wash away
  the willows and the reeds?

Willow, Won’t You? [Blank Verse]

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When I see some willows -
 down by water's edge,
  drooping in the moonlight,
 or swaying in the breeze -

I think of Blackwood's tale
 of Danube canoers
  who land upon an isle
  to camp among the willows.

And will the willows that
 I see, mark wicked ground,
  and what will they become
 when darkness makes its stand?

It's such a pretty tree...
 now all but ruined for me,
  and that is story's power
 to sweeten or to sour.

For those interested in reading the referenced story:

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood — free at Project Gutenberg

The Desert Calls [Lyric Poem]

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The desert called; its tone silent.
 It asked me out, and so I went.

One patch of dune looked like the rest;
 so, I couldn't tell which place was best

to burn just like a slice of bread
 stuck in the slot, 'mid burning threads:

those glowing wires, exuding heat
 that burn the head and burn the feet.

And so, I marched across the sands
 in search of more temperate lands,

but I never reached such a place
 and vanished there, without a trace.