PROMPT: 30 Things

Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.

1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.

Hermit Hut [Haiku]

a hermit-hut hides
on the cloud-enshrouded peak
two valleys away.

Rain Dance [Haiku]

ripples dance
on a flooded paddy
as rain starts, slowly.

Gen Z Stare? [Senryū]

perched magpie
stares into the distance.
gen z? perhaps.

Petal Drop [Senryū]

dogeared petal 
can take no more --
flutters in a gust.

“To a Butterfly” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]

Stay near me—do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in Thee,
Historian of my Infancy!
Float near me; do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay Creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My Father's Family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when in our childish plays
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the Butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:—with leaps and springs
I follow'd on from brake to bush;
But She, God love her! feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.

Pagoda Pond [Haiku]

clouds drift 
amid the lily pads:
pagoda pond.

Fish Wu Wei [Haiku]

in flowing water,
fish trio effortlessly
remains in place.

“To the River” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
Of crystal, wandering water,
Thou art an emblem of the glow
Of beauty—the unhidden heart—
The playful maziness of art
In old Alberto’s daughter;

But when within thy wave she looks—
Which glistens then, and trembles—
Why, then, the prettiest of brooks
Her worshipper resembles;
For in my heart, as in thy stream,
Her image deeply lies—
His heart which trembles at the beam
Of her soul-searching eyes.

Bed of Boulders [Haiku]

mid-summer:
a stream trickles through boulders
once dragged by floods.