There's no contentment

Without the peace of others

Until we are whole

 

Aspen collonade

Topped with leafy capitals

Holding up the sky

 a torrid morning

i am hoping for a cloud

even without rain

 Take a stroll around

It’s hard to ignore haiku

They are everywhere

 Glowing in sunlight

Softening with the season

Peaches almost ripe

 Birds feed eagerly

Then make away for cover

A slow shadow sweeps

When pride contends truth

The cost cannot be tallied

No honor conferred

 The apple tree bows

Laden with bountiful fruit

Weighted with beauty

 The Quartet

It starts with the tune

They scuttle it - trade it up

Then bring it back home

Seasons remind us

The modesty of nature

And savagery

Like rumors whispered

 The wind in the highest limbs

Roots will never know

 An early firefly

The night crawls out of the woods 

Crickets sound their knell

 A doleful portent

Iron wheels strike a rhythm

A train warns the town

Without metaphors 

Birds do as well as poets

Troubadors in trees

 never discouraged

ephemeral seeds must wait

for rightful seasons

rimmed with misty pink

the last reserves of the day

dissolve into dusk

 Here's the paradox

What if we had no questions?

And only listened

You're free, dear Virginia

She waded away

Where voices could not follow

Her coat filled with stones

 Face toward the moon

Bathe in its borrowed luster

Be soothed by its peace

 Like a thristy tree

Whose roots spread slowly outward

He searches for love

The bloom almost spent

A butterfly's dalliance

Still nectar enough

 When there's a chokestone

Or debris that blocks the flow

Clamber - see beyond

 Cycles of water

As though it has memory

Always reliving

 All instinctively

No transactions in nature

All one benefit

 Are we so prideful

That wealth must come at the cost

Of those who have least

 Stillness of the pond

Belies its vitality

Nature's artfulness

Flashing - undaunted

Bold lancers of the garden

Hummingbirds on guard!

 Beckoning brown eyes

Patient anticipation

Canine persuasion

 Mostly ears and legs

Dappled to conceal its youth

Invisible fawn

 To juke the rhythm

To make the song swing with soul

Stay behind the beat

 Who first made the claim

All that lies within these bounds

Is by my rights mine

 The doe stands and waits

Her fawn wobbles to its feet

And finds mother’s milk

 Why I cheer the rain

Its chill and song and essence

Life in every drop

 The awful sunset

Made brilliant by distant fires

Smoke ablaze again

 To places afar

Beyond the last horizon

Only condors see

 Colony of ants

Freely cooperative

We could learn from them

 Roiling - thundering

Shuddering a dark redoubt  

How angry the sky

 He passes in fog

She’s seated at the window 

But does not look up

 There is a fine line

Between admire and envy 

Desire and craving

 She is the morning 

Always  waking - arousing

Accepting the sun

 The pecking order

Crow - jay - junco - nuthatch - finch

Until the hawk soars

Psithurism

Golden in the gloam

The pine tops sway to the wind

Whispering “good night”

 This lively morning

Of gaiety all at once

This moment in May

 There once was a time

If you had to reach someone

'Twas at home or church

 Nothing too common

The charm of ordinaries

Pebble, moss, and spider

 words of no one born

leave inspiration in doubt

for expedience

 Regal hollyhock

Crowned with black-red diadems

Queen of the garden

 Embrace common good

Bask in the warmth you will feel

Deeply in your soul

Hopefully restful

 How revealing is our sleep

Memories exhumed

 Take care and slow down

Hold the door for a stranger

A smile and a nod

To the ancestors

Alters of fond remembrance

Path of  marigolds

 Alarm of thunder

Dogs are barking at the sky

The birds become still

 July afternoon

The forest suddenly steams

A shocking cold rain

 The sky cracks its whip

Thunder caroms off the hills

The monsoon arrives!

Napping on the lawn

 A quick breeze breaks the fever

Afternoon relief 

she does not know me

all of us will fade with days

but i still know her

Torpid and fevered

Our sovereign affliction

Lays waste tomorrow

 As the night unfolds

I issue myself warning

Of dreams yet to dream

 Hoping that she gives 

Past love's power of loving

Flowers and a song

 No easier day

To loaf in the lap of June

Just me and the breeze

The wisdom of stars

In the cold furnace of space

Knows naught of our time

 A swim in the pond

My dog waits on the front porch

Happily sopping

 Gradual circles

Ravens soar in the solstice

Something died below

 This no victory

Vainglorious surrender

This day we seem small

 Here's to vagabonds

Drifters with their dusty dogs

Hoping for a lift

No matter how deep

 It’s solid at rock bottom

A place to begin

 The music makes you

It’s the mojo of the blues

Three chords and the truth

A splendid display

What more to ask of summer

Sodden with sunlight

 The morning’s rewards

Birds and dew on garden hues

Dreams that do not end

 She’s wild as the rain

A thunderhead set to crack

Doesn’t need a name

Tempest of vengeance

The seawall torn asunder

Lean into the surge!

sewn during the night 

an arch of fine gossamer

traps a heedless gnat

 Hark the symphony!

Robins - finches - juncos - jays

Take solos in turn

 

 Quiet and charming

Through the meadow runs the brook

As she through his life

 My beautiful bloom

How soon you are summer’s fruit 

Full swollen and sweet

 Winter light at noon

With teacups and currant jam

The cat on the sill

There are better ways

 To keep the lions away

Than hiding in fear

 Each considered step

I am old for a reason

And see more slowly

 A treetop refrain

Chirp chirp it repeats chirp chirp

 The merry towhee

 Years accumulate 

What I have learned from the earth

Death and renewal

Loamy detritus

Fertile realm of flies and worms

Bountiful compost

 Something small happened

Something scarcely regarded 

But now I am changed

Some have never known

 To live without the sirens

The quiet of peace

The faint flaxen sky

Becomes a scarlet brocade

Morning is adorned

Headstone of rubble

Interred under hate’s disgrace

Unforgotten child

 No bole can sustain

No limb can adjoin the sky

When roots have rotted

 The light grows apace

The days of May are larger

Summer crops give thanks

 The elder couple

Dancing without the music

In the living room

 Old Gus with a beer

Just watchin’ the smoker smoke

This could take a while

 The pitch letter high

Then the batter’s flawless swing

He watches - then trots

Others far from me

Knew hate that I could ignore

Because I was not

The ancient tallies

Scribed with reeds on clay tablets

Primal histories

They do without then

 Animals have no stories

Other than what is

 You may have the clock

Said the peasant to the lord

But we have the time

 

Another winter

Despite the season's ordeal

The osprey nest lasts

 If you meet Buddha

In your sleep or on the road

Ask no directions

 When you pull it out

Leave it with the roots dangling

 Still clutching the earth 

 I found an old man

Who wore his years like a robe

Proud and handsomely

 

Suddenly it stopped

The patience of the horned toad

Hiding in plain sight

 Sweet sufficiency 

No desire or rebuttal

Equable content

Youth lost to hunger

 In war everyone is old

Pity does not feed

Dry musty pages

Yellow and curled by neglect

Poems longing for eyes

inside a good book

there are real people waiting

ready to meet you

 My most vivid life

No filter or distraction

Occurs while I sleep

 Careless wandering

Whatever way I travel

I’m close to somewhere

Father tends the roast

Mother’s potato salad

It smells like Sunday

 With nostrils aglow

My dog greets me at the door

She knows where I’ve been

 Bound by their nature

To food water and the sun

The birds are not free

 Before the firestorm

The crow is an oracle

Heed its prophecy

To make problems worse

There’s too much man in mankind

And not enough kind

 It happens seldom

But Monday was Square Root Day

5-5-25

though my flesh is worn

let it not impair my soul

tomorrow is new

The moment we met

 I would trade a tomorrow

For that day again

What welcome tender

From sullen soil of winter

The first sprouts of spring 

i resist game trails 

ways of life across terrain

domain of four legs

 In these find comfort

The dog's cold nose - kids at play

A bird in the breeze

 Dependable friends

Finches, robins, and sparrows

Return for summer

 An impatient crow

Reminds me with a complaint 

When will you feed me?

 Condemned to freedom

How long is this going to last

Can’t seem to shake it

Even in darkness

Everything was in hiding

She returns hungry

 Can the inchworm know

As it crawls across damp April

It will fly in June

 When the time offered

He told his story again

Save differently

An unbarred window

It reaches into the room

The night’s contrivance 

The damp potioned loins

Deeper than any desire

The elixir calls

 In fields of wild flowers

The lovers will have no markers

Shrouded in good earth

 alone among them

does he dare pursue a phrase

or humbly listen

These old dusty shoes

Been dancin' in the backyard

To the fife and drums

 To The Child

Something in me knows

That every breath you make

Is also my breath

 His doubt blocked the sun

A leaden cloud of silence

Impenetrable

Maori Warrior

Generations of tattoos

The sea in his hair

Below glaucous clouds

In the saddle of the hills

A slice of fair sky

We make so much noise

It’s nearly impossible 

To hear dragonflies

 Something in the soil

In the sweat - the river’s smell

That makes for the blues

 Made of lifeless stone

There is sorrow in this wall

Bound by fear’s mortar

 If there is no sin

What reason for redemption

Except for the blues

 The roadless prairie 

Without a thought of compass

Hand in hand we’ll go

 When I am away

That world becomes resplendent

I see with new eyes

 Could I be a bird

I would not peck or scavenge

I would soar and sweep

Sweet capricious spring

Surprise me at your pleasure 

Blythe effervescence 

 a familiar tale

but he doesn't know the end

shall he turn the page?

what comes of people

a spontaneous order

without injunction

sublime confusion

the moment after a dream

neither here nor there

in green unfurling 

a fern lives next to the pond

graceful frondescence

on the passing of one beloved

 loyal and loving

she will forever mean friend

our hearts howl with blue

 the moment he knew

that his heart would rhyme with hers

no verse could compare

Her ears are eager

 She seems to know what I think

Her tail says it all 

 It will go away

When it has finished its work

The moral of pain

Hoping for peaches

There are rumors in the bloom

Spotless spring morning

First greeting of spring

Most completely indigo

The glad hyacinth 

 Most of what I’ve known 

Wasn’t thinking after all

Tuition of whims

 

 

 Powered by the reef

The wave gathers its body

Then destroys itself

There is still much left

Of stories hardly begun

And of love unspent

the oppressors know 

the power of ignorance

make america dim

 The orange tree trembles

The temptation of fragrance

A feast for the bees

 To reckon of me

I will share stories with you

Come sit by my side

 The miles and the time

Form stories ever changing

The same neverless

 He has been unmoored

Carried by secret currents

No wind in his sail

 Rich do what they want

Then the achingly sad part

Poor do what they must

Still damp from the night

The poppies unfold slowly

Sunny reverence

 This contagious day

I am infected with spring

A plague of beauty

 Starlings doves and quail

Set asunder for cover

When the hawk soars by

 Beyond the heartache

He lives alone by the sea

Tides for company

 I must leave this road

And ramble the timbered hills

Where whippoorwills call

Quail drop from their roost

 The hummingbird resumes its bliss

All morning could be

 Dappled in summer

Adaptable ptarmigan 

Snow pure in winter

           Rule of the rulers

Entertain them with awful

Thinking optional

 Impetuous spring

Unfurls a brilliant tribute

Winter rewarded

 a lad of talent

bearing with such cleverness 

the fair crown of youth

 Then tulips up reach

Goblets of lustrous wonder

Filling with sunlight

The fields are trampled

Handbills scatter in the wind

 After the circus 

 when all is springtime 

blessed ribbons from the sky

wonderful puddles

Tireless artisans 

 Bees expect no gratitude 

Their work is their thanks

Heavens in a breath

The muchness of the moment

Oceans in a drop

 don't be complainin'

if you don't like potatoes

don't dig in my yard

 Dry desperation

The roots are the last to die

And first to repay

 The faithful black dog

Spends the morning on the porch 

Waiting for the truck 

Morning with a  breeze

Sun shinin’ in the back door

The cat’s out to hunt

 Alfred E Neuman

Distilled a sea of twaddle

To “What, me worry?”

 Forgotten letters

Brittle but unabated

Wait in the attic

The last time I checked 

I'm still lookin' like myself

Spare consolation

 All are made of one

The greatest common factor

No life is trifling

Your laws and libel

 Who do you think you’re fooling 

Reckonings will come 

Like Ouroboros 

 Absurdity of vengeance 

Will consume itself

The swollen orange buds 

What sound unloosed when they burst?

Only the bees know

 Breaking the quiet 

A buck through the underbrush

His nostrils steaming

 have the roots lost hope?

when the tortoise emerges 

will it know the world?

Patiently crocheted 

A tablecloth stained with love

By generations 

 This morning feels fine

Peaceful as a sleeping dog

Soaking in sunlight

 The widow entreats

Come under my veil with me

Know how cold my heart

Sacrificial fruit

Briefly ripened  - soon withered

Will render the seeds

 A stirring surmise

Made dim in the daylight

Burning while I sleep

By intuition 

Nature is truth - as it is

Gods in the smallest

 Lyrics in water

Composed by what lies beneath

The hindered flow sings

 One who lives with poise

Whose lot flows with the current

Loos’d of all desire

There shall be no thrones

No nobles or attendants 

Bread for everyone

Ponder this mankind 

 What if hope is a woman

Would that explain it

 The increase of night 

A cold carriage approaches

Its footman beckons

 The length of my life 

Is not as important as

The length of my health 

True without a proof

 There are stars we’ll never see

Heavens past heavens

 Before in darkness

Only the sun and a fire 

Could foretell shadows

The swirling patterns

A sable cloud of starlings

Random or given?

 Vainly deluded

Humanity’s whole extent

Is barely a blink 

is this our someday?

 to be plodding sequiturs?

shadows that follow?

 An indigo night

Moonless waves fall gracefully

Edged with gauzy foam

 Trapped in the chapel

Thrashing against the stained glass 

A desperate dove

 When we were savage

Perfectly unenlightened

Before there was why

In the pathless woods 

The ravenous elk bugles

"Come for me!" he calls

 A barnacled hull 

I trim my sheets to the squall

Wild gusts of my life!

Let’s go cross country

Until we come to the cliffs

Where the condors soar

 It’s too late to die 

(where is my generation)

Before I get old

 If I had my way

After all is said and done 

I’d leave ‘em laughing

 honorable lives

that they may serve as water

to quench and quicken 

 While innocence hopes

Ambition forgives cruelty

Somewhere there is war

 The man to the boy

What was the best thing today?

Right now is, Father

panoply of clouds

a mystic combination

of water and air

 i offer this thread

a frayed end of silken thoughts

pull and i'm unstitched

 Billboards are blaring

With faces of the lawyers 

Land of grievances

 

When it all had worth

They expected the rag man

His bundles in tow

 The old county road

A dog chased the rusty truck

Both faded with dust

 The First

They followed the tracks

Mammoths on the horizon

To un-peopled lands

 When you have questions 

But don’t need to have answers

Come see about me

 Singin' in the car

Don’t care what time I get there

I love this next song

 A gray brittle twig

Depleted - almost hopeless

Too far from the roots

The message she wrote

Has never faded away

What's done is not done

Without a good-bye

 She got off near Santa Fe

Dissolved into dawn

A faint morning moon

She wrote something on his palm

And pressed it to hers

 When he asked her name

She placed her hand on his lips

Listen for the moon

 The train turned a bend

Her head fell to his shoulder

They dreamed without sleep

 They talked in darkness

Without ending a story

Or starting the next

 As the night rolled on

She said that love and passion 

Do not need to rhyme

 She told of the South

Of hands bleeding from the fields

Of faith and aching

 Her dark eyes spoke out

A daring invitation

You can come closer

 Though they'd never met

Her look said that she knew him

Before we they born

 When he noticed her 

 She was immersed in the land

Her eyes rimmed with tears

This haiku and the twelve that follow comprise an accidental story of sorts.

He lost his ticket

Not sure where the train headed

Just feeling the ride

 Ironically

It's hard to spot a leopard

Or even see one

 My Dad used to say

I feel more like I do now

Than a while ago

 2025

This is how the year begins

With doubt and a sigh

 Though still and pallid

Winter's no infirmity

Spring will blush again

I can remember

(this happened before i died)

The slow forgetting

 With sun they start work

There’s no finer certainty

The bees of July

When he is missing

What matters and gives him peace

Someplace warm to sleep

 Too long without rain

The desert lives on remains

Nothing  dares to breathe

The recondite cat

Being charming but aloof

Comes comfortably

 My father taught me

Of responsibility

My mother - to fly

 Make evergreen wreaths

Adorn them with love and cheer

Decorate this day!

 Children everywhere

Put your excitement abed

Dream of tomorrow

 I am suns and moons

The seasons each to other

Cylces in circuits

The favorite trail

Is now longer and steeper

My bootsoles wear thin

 Surf assaults the shore

A lighthouse burns through the fog

Helmsmen sail on faith

why not consider?

content instead of happy?

which a better peace?

 My faith comes to this

I will tend to my garden

And it will tend me

 A dog to itself

Making humans feel better

Is tail-heavy work

Devout and time-worn

The oak tree preaches wisdom 

Doves stop to worship

 

 Pausing to relax

On the enduring passage

Water forms a pond

 I’m a scavenger

Searching through thoughts left behind

Gathering potsherds

 Dactylonomy

Certainly comes in handy

When writing haiku

 The river's water

Is anonymous again

As it joins the sea

 Privilege  of dogs

To sleep wherever they want

I am envious

 She can barely breathe

The tears tremble down her face

This is how love costs

 i accept this now

to sit quietly alone

and hear myself breathe

 Freedom for women

Suppressed throughout the ages

By the church and state 

 He was up all night

Not believing in the dawn

While fear fed on him

yielding but steadfast 

a tree is a trusted friend

without doubt or guile

 These tracks are southbound

They run to Mississippi

Where blues plays all night

To my excitement

Erumpent gladiolas

Send up their first spears

 What time is it now?

A question once never asked

Before there was next

 Appreciate life

Even pond scum has purpose

There is blue in green

 When stories dissolve

When there's no truth or fiction

What will bind us then 

 Invisible wall

Without a door or window

Can words penetrate?