Mountain Azalea [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of a cluster of pink Mountain Azalea with barren woods in the background. Taken on the Sawnee Mountain Trail in North Georgia.
One cluster of Mountain Azalea
Stands out like royal regalia,
Adorning a near naked vagrant --
But much more pleasingly fragrant.

“Come slowly — Eden!” (205) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Come slowly -- Eden!
Lips unused to Thee --
Bashful -- sip thy Jessamines --
As the fainting Bee --

Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums --
Counts his nectars --
Enters -- and is lost in Balms.

Nostalgia [Free Verse]

Eight thousand miles 
from my childhood home,
I'm pulled into a nostalgic
reverie
by the scent of straw
and cow shit.
This place,
on the other side of the world,
looks nothing like where I
grew up,
but that smell...

Green Fields [Haiku]

the rice fields 
are at their most verdant;
scent of rain.

Midday Fish Market [Haiku]

a fish market,
 broken down for the day --
  yet, its scent still grows.

Gunsmoke [Free Verse]

the acrid smell
of 
burnt gun-smoke
dulls
in the mind,
but not 
in the air

the brain tires of smelling it,
and so it fades,
but
it has nowhere to go --
not in this violent place
of dead & heavy air