• HAIKU

    The harvest mooncaresses the still pondsleeping peacefully When you sit atopthe peak of the mountainevery step is down ibis move asideat the Great Egret’s demandavian order


  • NO NOAH

    The rains have now begunand while they are not yet Biblicaland may never be, we know theyare simply a tease of whatis coming in the next days.Milton is a monster, they say,his reputation as impetuoushas already preceded him,and I am not one to argue finepoints with nature, she is fickleand always manages to win.So we…


  • SEDOKA

    The stream slows its flowpast the park bench, now unusedawaiting the first snowflakes. The trout swims downstream for the lake, where the water gently yields its fading warmth. First Published in Fireflies Light, Issue 30, October 2024 (Missouri Baptist University)https://www.mobap.edu/about-mbu/publications/fireflies-light/


  • SHE WILL ARRIVE

    In this place and timeof year our hauntings comefrom the sea, she that usuallybewitches us can turn angryand unleash her spite and spittle,and she will not be sateduntil we all concede our impotence.She cares nothing for doors,goes through one and all thatimagine they stand in her way.We know she will come, not when,and in the…


  • JAPANESE POEMS

    They watch the heronhe wonders what it is liketo be able to fly She gently smiles back knowing he would never leave the safety of earth. Wading birds are stillignoring the frequent rainsthe wet season now


  • OCTOBER

    There is an infinite spaceAround us, a massive voidinto which universes tumbleand stars and planets are born.Outside, the maple leavesburning flame and crimsonspiral to the lawn, whichwaits to receive them.Autumn is the seasonwhen the earth prepares to dieand it is left to usto prepare the gravesite.The albino squirrel standson the fence rail, defyingme to find…


  • UNSHOVELING

    There is much to love here,not the least of which is the lackof snow always needing to be shoveledwhen your back is most sore,when you need to be somewhereon a schedule the clouds chose to ignore.But the one thing you cannot find,the thing you never expectedto be that which you most missis the polychromatic season.For…


  • TO BE OR NOT TO BE

    The spider sits on the transomover the front door waiting, tryingto decide if it dares attempt entry.Others of its kind have, neverto return or to do so crippledand it knows a five or six-leggedarachnid would not be longfor the world it is trying to escape.I doubt it knows the risksthat lie within, a cat who…


  • ALMOST, NOT QUITE

    The rains finally came the other day,not the tropical storms that this seasonpromises, those will come laterwe are assured by the weathermenwho sometimes struggle to describewhat is happening outside their windows.It was the sort of rain we had almostforgotten during our tropical droughtwhich, yes, does seem like a contradictionin terms until you look at the…


  • THREE HAIKU

    sun consumes itselffurnace heat grips the citysmall maple withers setting summer sunturns the river to purplemoon comes from hiding giant cranes are perchedon thin spindly legs, necks bowedsteel beams scratch the clouds