Just the Tips [Senryū]

high mountains:
sunrise hits snowcaps only;
in darkness & don't know it.

Riderless [Free Verse]

An unfamiliar horse --
Saddled but riderless --
Cautiously ambles
Into the village.
Its saddle, bags, and coat
Spattered in black --
Really, rust-red on brown.

The villagers want nothing
To do with it,
But each sneaks it food
And lets it water at their
Tank.

“I heard thee laugh” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]

I heard thee laugh,
And in this merriment
I defined the measure of my pain;
I knew that I was alone,
Alone with love,
Poor shivering love,
And he, little sprite,
Came to watch with me,
And at midnight
We were like two creatures by a dead camp-fire.

Scrub & Stone [Haiku]

stony outcrops
& tawny scrublands:
alien landscape.

First Drops [Haiku]

first droplets
of a Spring shower ripple
on the river.

“There is a finished feeling” (856) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Recording]

There is a finished feeling
Experienced at Graves—
A leisure of the Future—
A Wilderness of Size.

By Death’s bold Exhibition
Preciser what we are
And the Eternal function
Enabled to infer.

Spring Stream [Haiku]

willow-lined stream
swells with a rush of
Spring white water.

Quatrain 62 of the Rubaiyat of Rumi [w/ Audio]

If you desire the self, get out of the self.
Leave the shallow stream behind
And flow into the river deep and wide.
Don't be an ox pulling the wheel of the plow,
Turn with the stars that wheel above you.

As translated in: Helminski, Kabir (ed.). 2018. The Pocket Rumi. Boulder, CO: Shambhala South Asia Editions. p. 4; translators: Kabir Helminski, Camille Helminski, and Lida Saedian

“Epigram for Wall Street” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

I'll tell you a plan for gaining wealth,
Better than banking, trade or leases —
Take a bank note and fold it up,
And then you will find your money in creases!
This wonderful plan, without danger or loss,
Keeps your cash in your hands, where nothing can trouble it;
And every time that you fold it across,
'Tis as plain as the light of the day that you double it!