hip-deep
the great blue heron —
head poised
Posted to the Facebook poetry-writing group seize the poem, 8/15/14.
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We were passing through Connecticut on our way to Massachusetts when there, off to the left, I saw the Housatonic. It looked broad and shallow, and the sun was glinting on its surface. Woods, gray-green in the middle distance, ran along the river’s farther side, and a narrow strip of rocky beach was visible.
Maybe it was the late-summer sunlight or a touch of river mist, but it wouldn’t have surprised me to see a Paugussett paddling a canoe and the light haze of cook fires on the far bank.
Housatonic!
Indians by the river
so long, long ago
* * * *
O snail,
Climb Mt. Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!
katatsumuri
soro soro nobore
fuji no yama
By Kobayashi Issa; R. H. Blyth, translator. Classical Japanese Database (http://carlsensei.com/classical/index.php/translation/view/168).
* * *
they steal the scene!
miles and piles of clouds
above Haarlem
View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overeen, 17th century, Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia (bit.ly/1s6vtNi).
* * *
cups of light
these bright red tulips
by the roadside
Published in Brass Bell: A Haiku Journal (http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/2014/08/colorful-haiku.html), 8/1/14.
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