HAIKU

One of the beautiful things about haiku is that it's short. A haiku doesn't require a lot of time or thought to compose. It's more like taking a snapshot. If you labor over it too long or too hard, the moment is lost. So, this page is a photo album of sorts. Hopefully there will be a few good pictures mixed in with the run of the mill ones.

half asleep today
after a night of bad dreams
and distant starlight.

five morning glories
peak out from behind the cage
of a chain link fence.

rows of strawberries –
standing in a single line
migrant workers stretch.

in one cardboard box
next to the garbage bin,
a long-stemmed rose.

a heavy downpour –
in the mountains above town,
plumes of smoke-white mist.

an egret stretches
its neck into the stiff breeze
coming off the marsh.

under the porch light
a fog-misted spider web
hangs, white as new twine.

anxious for winter
to end, yellow acacias
crowd beside the road.

a spot of yellow
reflecting on the icy pond –
it's cold this full moon!

yellow aspen leaves
lively as castanets
in winter's first snow.

last night, chill autumn
air ignited a maple,
turning it flame red.

laden with apples,
one limb sags to the ground
smelling of sulfur.

the color has gone
from the dried ladybug shells
gathered on the sill.

a single red rose
nestled in the stones above
the bones of my cat.

thick afternoon fog –
green stems are all that remain
of the white foxgloves.

three tall birch trees,
yellow backs turned to the rain
and an empty bench.