Night Sky [Haibun]

Flipping open the tent flap, I see a vast and glowing night sky. It's not the shabby patch of light points of my sky at home. Here, high in the mountains, far from any city, I can make out bands of color and dazzling webs of luminosity. 

And I can feel the tininess that past men must have felt, a diminished sense of importance that's hard to come by for a human standing on the Earth, where flags are planted everywhere and grand monuments to our pomposity are packed into dense clusters.



mountain sky.
the cloudless night
glows infinite 

Across the Valley [Tanka]

the waterfall,
thunderous and lofty,
is a thin stream
from across the valley,
and yet i stop & stare

DAILY PHOTO: Chandravalli Lake

Taken on September 10, 2021 at Chandravalli Lake

Grazing Horse Tanka

grazing horses
approach a cliff:
not watching
where they are going,
but knowing where they are

DAILY PHOTO: Shyok Valley

Taken in Ladakh in August of 2016

DAILY PHOTO: Yurts Far Below, Boz-Salkyn

Image

DAILY PHOTO: Evergreens & Mountains, Karakol NP

Taken in Karakol National Park in 2019

POEM: Evergreens

Evergreens line the trail,
transporting me to a place --
higher and harder --
where one might expect trees
that refuse to yield for seasons.