Cloud Deception [Haiku]

puffy white clouds
seem no less solid 
than gray granite

DAILY PHOTO: Sunlight Floods the Valley, Dzongri Overlook

Taken in May of 2022 from Dzongri Overlook on the Goechala Trail

Winter Landscape [Haiku]

Winter Landscape; Sesshū Tōyō (1470)
snowy mountains
stand above a trickling stream,
too cold to drip

Puddle Mirror [Haiku]

the puddle reflects
clouds, mountains, and sky
more vivid than truth

DAILY PHOTO: The Mountains Around Manali

Taken in Manali in June of 2015

Line of Blindness [Tanka]

mountains peek from clouds.
moments before they'd hid well;
i can't help but think
about all those times,
flying through clouds, blindly

Discovery Distance [Free Verse]

Mountains are best viewed at a distance,
despite humanity's "closer is better" bias.

Up close, one is invariably in a cloud,
looking at an undifferentiated mass
of gray-white:
ice -- granite -- snow -- fog.

One may climb a mountain 
to see other mountains in the distance,
but standing eye-to-rock with a mountain
offers little spectacle & grandeur.

Massive things can be too close to see.

I wonder whether I'm also
 better viewed from a distance.

Not everything is.

Consider the opposite mistake:
People say things such as, 
"My Great White Whale is out there."

But Great White Whales are  
always found looking inward --
not out in the distance.

Blanket of Clouds [Haiku]

mountain clouds
move with spontaneity --
like blanket fort kids

DAILY PHOTO: Mount Pandim

Taken in May of 2022 in Sikkim on the Goechala Trail

DAILY PHOTO: Dzongri Overlook Trail

Taken in May of 2022 near Camp Dzongri on the Goechala Trail