• PRAYER

    We bow our heads and utter words not to the cicada speaking through a spring night or the beetle crawling slowly across the leaf searching for the edge. We bid the crow silent, the cat mewling his hunger, just to crawl under a porch awaiting morning, the child to sleep. The stream flows slowly by,…


  • TWO HAIKU

    the morning dew smiles the rising sun stares deeply later a merger the egret stands fixed wishing he was a statue the rippling pond laughs


  • FOR THE BIRDS

    I’ve always been a bird person, perhaps it is just jealousy their ability to fly unencumbered, encased, to lift up by will alone. Here it is all about water, the Muscovy ducks waddling up to me each morning, pleading for the handout they should now know will not be forthcoming, at least when anyone else…


  • ADIEU, SOL

    The sun is preparing still another departure. He moves with a ponderousness that you wouldn’t expect of him, he who should be all passion consuming the sky, painting clouds. We expect his return by morning, he has never yet disappointed but Luna, lingering at the horizon, a diva making her slow entry, shines fully as…


  • MY REFLECTIONS

    Each morning I stare into the mirror and see the same white hair and wonder who I will be today and what I was on all of those other mornings. I ask the mirror what life has in store for me this day but it only smirks, never answers as if it knows something I…


  • HAIKU TWO TANKA

    A clouded night sky hide and seek moon chases squirrels      Rain holds back      In deep laughter Wind whispers trees sigh in response Morning awakens A heron poses standing on a single leg We watch jealously


  • DISCONCERT

    The crows are disconcerted this morning. It could be that the sun startled them or that they were simply  present to protest the cold for clearly they despise it as much as we do.


  • ANTWERP

    It is seven in the morning Antwerp arises slowing in winter the small bar along seldom used quays of Schelde is almost empty, one old man tottering on his stool swaying to breath head pressed on the counter. Young couple, she brown haired pale white skin against white sweater, he long blond woven into a…


  • WINTER, AGAIN

    The snow began falling this morning the dry, almost greasy snow that defies the plows running up and down the streets, too shallow for the salters to begin. Cars slide to a stop, or nearly so, at the intersection, and you know it is merely a matter of time before two will simultaneously, and there…


  • NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

    The church is about half full, which is to be kind, a quarter of the pews are filled, but people are spread widely apart to give the family, to give the priests, just to be on the safe side to give God, the impression of a fuller house, although it being a Mass of Resurrection…