The Fig Treatment [Free Verse]

Photograph of a Buddha head carving enveloped by Strangler Fig at Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand.
On a scale from
"this is cozy"
to
"my skull is cracking,"
I wonder how the fig tree
at Wat Mahathat treats
the Buddha's head?

Felonious Fig [Free Verse]

Photograph of a Strangler Fig straddling a stone wall -- taken at Ta Prom, Angkor, Cambodia.
I thought I caught a fig tree,
escaping over a stone wall,
but when I turned my attention
upon it, it stayed so very still.

DAILY PHOTO: Tall Pines, Kolsay Lake

Image

Photograph taken from a mountain trail around the Kolsay Lakes in Kazakhstan with tall evergreen trees in the fore and lake and valley in the rear.

Tree Hell [Tanka]

pine cone wedged
in a rotten sleeper,
on derelict tracks,
may become a tree
and made into sleepers.

DAILY PHOTO: Seesaw Statue in Gyeongju

Image

Photograph featuring classic Korean architecture and a seesaw statue. Taken in Gyeongju, South Korea.

DAILY PHOTO: Palms & Mountains, Vang Vieng

Photograph of a palm tree in the fore and karst mountains in the background. Taken outside Vang Vieng, Laos.
Photograph with Vang Vieng Village and a palm tree in the foreground, and karst mountains in the background.

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.

First Blossom [Haiku]

petal flutters down
from clustered Cherry Blossoms;
is it the first?

Stony Ground [Haiku]

Photograph of a tree on the granite hill named Uttari Betta in Karnataka, India.
roots grow down
through stony ground -- still,
Spring brings deep green.

Naked Wisdom [Haiku]

Photograph of a barren tree taken on the Butch Kennedy Trail, near Lake Hartwell, in South Carolina.
one bare tree
knew not to bud or bloom
before the last freeze.