DAILY PHOTO: Stone Mountain Lake

Taken in the summer of 2011 in Stone Mountain Park

POEM: Rush

Rushing water carves rock and clay away,
gouging out a statement in nature’s hand.
Water spatter creates a misty spray,
stinging sharply as pelted with wet sand.

A foamy ridge takes a serpentine form
on the glassy warp field glazing brook stones.
This wild water isn’t born of savage storm;
it’s the effortless effort of Zen koans.

My camera fails to capture the calm scene,
but blurs it into a tiny tempest,
transforming a mundane forest stream
into a world scarring menace.

In these rapids I see a tsunami
washing over isles of Izanami.

DAILY PHOTO: Furry Caterpillar

Taken in July of 2016 in Bangalore

POEM: Lonely Oak





I
lonesome oak on a hill



having outlived your peers



your progeny denied the light
by scythe and mower blade alike



II
it’s said you speak by pheromone
but no whiff is caught when alone
your words disperse unsmelt
lost across a manmade veldt



III
if it’s any consolation
you have our unflagging admiration
you’re the model of stately poise
to all the little girls and boys



who swing about your stout limbs

POEM: Blue

Oh, the glorious monotony
of mountain skies
an azure dome
in rare air highs
over the brome

And, too, the lake
glassy tranquil
float duck and drake
in mile high chill

DAILY PHOTO: Kashmiri Creeks

Taken in August of 2016 on the Naranag-Sonamarg Trail









DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Loktak Lake













Taken in May of 2017 in Manipur

DAILY PHOTO: Sun Rising Over a Ridge in the Annapurnas

Taken in May of 2018 in the Annapurna Sanctuary

 

DAILY PHOTO: White-throated Kingfishers of the Backwaters

Taken in July of 2017 in the Backwaters of Kerala









DAILY PHOTO: Spur-Winged Goose on the Prowl

I was going to call this “Duck – duck – goose [-goose]” until I discovered that the smaller birds are also geese (i.e. Egyptian Geese)

 

A Spur-winged Goose hunting

 

Two Spur-winged geese in a row; Taken in the Chobe River between Botswana and Namibia in April of 2017