The Valley [Haibun]

Down the valley, the green oasis fades into wind-swept sand dunes, dunes like those seen in Arabia, but smaller and bounded by the mountains. The shrubs and tufts of grass obey no sharp boundary with the dunes, but rather meander into and out of the neighboring ecosystem. Sand and camels at 12,000 feet, ranges away from the sea, but once upon a time...  


high altitude
valley -- strange worlds squeezed
between two mountains 

DAILY PHOTO: Thiksay Gompa

Taken in August of 2016 in Ladakh

Double Rainbow [Haibun]

Subsequent ridges fade into shapes, darker and less distinct. The farther down the lake one looks, the lower the clouds hang, until they obscure all trace of the apparent infinity of ridges. In front of the one sun-warmed wall of mountain, two rainbows arch skyward, disappearing into the clouds. One is a weak echo of the other. My Irish mind imagines the arc-segments are full semi-circles -- pot-o-gold, and all that. But the weak one seems to quit before it even reaches the cloud, and thus makes me wonder if rainbows are real, and - if they are - is the weak one as real as the bright one.


double rainbow
arches up from the lake,
stoking pondering

Raging Elephant [Haiku]

the elephant
they said was on a rampage
just had a bad toothache

DAILY PHOTO: Cubbon Statue & Bandstand

Taken in Cubbon Park in March of 2021

Sacred Geometries [Haiku]

geometries
dice a smooth world into 
prismatic chunks

DAILY PHOTO: Yellow Building in Bangalore

Taken in Bangalore in March of 2021

Sky Burial [Tanka]

circling raptors
sweep down onto the platform;
they peck and tear;
when sun-bleached bones remain,
nature's hard work begins