Hazy Mountains [Haiku]

in the distance,
 nothing but blank gray.
  near: vivid green

DAILY PHOTO: Kodachadri Overlook in the Dry Season

DAILY PHOTO: Green Rice & Brown Hills

Advancing Forest [Tanka]

the forest stays low,
 creeping up the valley: like 
  advancing forces,
 but that hill isn't taken --
  season after season.

Good Light [Haiku]

low afternoon sun
 makes the old mountains
  look crisply creased.

DAILY PHOTO: Kashmir

Image

Vanishing Hills [Haiku]

rows of hills,
 each new ridge fades more
  into nothingness.

Beyond Sight [Kyōka]

in the mountains,
 beyond every sightline,
  a potential top...
 but - more likely -
  just more to climb.

Escaping the Cave [Common Meter]

Climbing a mountain, I feel like
  I've escaped Plato's cave.
 My senses reel as though they're a
   crew of newly freed slaves.

The sky is bluer, rivers green,
  each grit granule is clear.
 And even at the very edge,
   there's ease in feeling fear.
 By "ease" I mean not frozen stiff,
   but like a friend so dear
 that one can take one's grand peril,
   a gift received with cheer.

Take me to the mountains, I say,
  where it's serene and real,
 and I can open up my sight
   to a world that's ideal.

DAILY PHOTO: Sundown at Mt. Agung, Amed

Taken in Amed on December 30, 2022