DAILY PHOTO: Evergreen Trees on the Mountain

Taken in the summer of 2019 at the Kolsai Lakes in Kazakhstan

Wide Open Spaces [Free Verse]

out of my cell 
&
onto the trail

i walk the vast expanse,
the vault of heaven above
&
hills of rolling green
beneath my feet

and clouds barge through
blue skies
like thoughts barge through
my mind -

sluggishly
but
inevitably

Chiaroscuro Green [Free Verse]

densely packed stands of pine,
the dark green 
insinuating black shadow

set against the verdant
grassy meadows
and shaggy scrubland

it makes the mountain 
look angular,
 with sharp edges
pounded into shape

the pine-writ shadows
steal depth,
suggesting absence,
creating the impression
of emptiness,

a false void...

or so it seems

Mountain Fog [Free Verse]

fogged in at a teahouse,
a growing gray of view,

this world lacks 
sharp lines,
excepting the hint of:

-a sloping roofline
&
-a building's corner

 these lines are 
sharp relative to
the amorphous gray;

but fuzzy compared to 
the same line's clarity 
on a blue sky day

now,
they're blurred, 
as if the village
had been painted by a
skilled - but lazy -
painter,

a sumi-e master
with a melancholy soul

DAILY PHOTO: Umiew River

Taken in April of 2017 on the David Scott Trail

DAILY PHOTO: Dhavalappan Giri

Taken near Chandravalli Cave on September 10, 2021

DAILY PHOTO: Forest Path

Taken in August of 2011 in Arabia Mountain Park

The Perils of Watching One’s Step [Tanka]

looking down
from blue skies and sparse clouds 
my next look up
the ceiling has lowered
and rain is on its way

DAILY PHOTO: Evergreens & Mountains, Karakol NP

Taken in Karakol National Park in 2019