Enter the Haze [Haiku]

Photograph taken near Luang Namtha, in Laos near the China border.
village breathes fresh air:
the last before stalks are burned /
the valley goes gray.

Nature Overwrites Culture [Haiku]

Photograph taken in Agartala at Gedu Mia's Mosque.
saplings sprout
from the ornate trim
of a once-grand mosque.

Stoic Tears [Haiku]

Photograph taken atop Kaurava Kunda  Hill in Karnataka, India.
buffeted by wind --
hunched & leaning windward,
stoic tears roll.

Dark Advance [Haiku]

Photograph taken on Victoria Harbour (from the Star Ferry) on a rainy day in Hong Kong.
rain clouds advance:
an army that won't stop to
besiege the city.

Mystery Door [Lyric Poem]

Photograph taken in the Halasuru neighborhood of Bangalore, India.
There's something about an old wood door --
ornate (but on some humdrum street)
that makes one wonder if it's more
than its neighbors -- something offbeat:
Perhaps, a portal into Hell,
a Speakeasy of unknown vice,
a smelly cheese smuggling cartel,
a school for wizards, imprecise.

Baby Monkey Wisdom [Kyōka]

Photograph of a baby Macaque taken at Gudibande Fort in the Chikkaballapur District of Karnataka, India.
the fixed boulder
makes great shelter;
rolling boulders
make monkey paste:
how do baby monkeys know?

Whiplash Weather [Free Verse]

Photograph taken in Stepantsminda, Georgia of evergreens in the foreground and Mount Shani in the background.
Mountains are the
Lamborghini of weather --
from gray and dismal to
gloriously sunny
and back again
in record time.
It may rain and the droplets
burn off before noon,
leaving no trace of
the gloom.
One day may feel
multiple ways before
the sun goes down.

The human mind isn't
built for such whiplash
emotional experience.

Squirrel Grandiosity [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of an Eastern Gray Squirrel taken in North Georgia.
A squirrel sat straight upon a dirt mound.
It could survey the woods for miles around.
Holding an acorn like a microphone,
The rodent seemed to be deep in the Zone.
Perhaps comedy stylings or folk songs?
But it just chewed its nut loud and long.

Disappointed Sparrow [Kyōka]

Photograph of a large, bowl-like, mushroom stuck to a tree in a forest. Taken along the Big Creek Greenway in Alpharetta, GA.
birdbath grows from
fungus on a dead log;
flitting sparrow
is disappointed to find
no water remains within.

Winter Marsh [Haiku]

Photograph taken along the Big Creek Greenway in Alpharetta, Georgia.
light sparkles 
on shallow water:
winter marshland.