Kilimanjaro Hides [Kyōka]

"Amboseli 
offers great views of 
Kilimanjaro!"
they said. but, for me,
obstinate clouds object

Web of Roots [Haiku]

a web of fig roots
drapes in wild tangles, & a 
sapling - straight & green  

Tree Nature [Haiku]

under the tree sits
a potential Buddha;
human mimics tree

Rock Agama [Tanka]

a Rock Agama
peeks over a rock, stops,
and tries to be
inconspicuously
bright orange

DAILY PHOTO: Rhododendrons of Many Colors

Taken in West Sikkim on the Goechala Trail in May of 2022.

Nocturnal [Kyōka]

owl sticks its head out,
staring in silent rebuke
as if to say:
"Hey! I'm nocturnal.
What's with all the ruckus?"

DAILY PHOTO: Whitewater & Pines

Taken near Jeti-Ögüz in the Summer of 2019
 
           

Tributary [Free Verse]

Your river is a tributary.
My river is a tributary,
merging
&
flowing to a sea.

I feel your molecules,
floating past my own,
intermingling
& 
in some way tingling:
a jangled excitation.

And, 
[at the sea]
we will be, together
&
[at the sea]
we will be together.

I no longer worry
that I'm a river with no name --
an anonymous tributary -- 
because every sea 
has many names.

DAILY PHOTO: Kaindy Lake, Kazakhstan

Taken in the Summer of 2019 at Kaindy Lake

The submerged trees [below] for which Kaindy Lake is famed came about when part of the mountain sloughed off to create a natural dam and reservoir [above.]