Category: nature

Water (Haiku and Free Verse)

(Inspired by Steve Still Standing‘s  “An Exercise in Poetic Styles”)

Even the river bleeds –
fiery frigid essence –
earth’s watery voice.

***

It is the river
that calls, waters flowing
through my veins
and I am the banks
steadfast in my holding

the razor sharp edges
like liquid steel
eroding my earthen
postures, challenging
the hardened places.

Night Calls

A shrill note
pierces night’s curtain –
an insistent, pestering alarm

Is it loneliness
that motivates the caller –
the need for a warm body
to calm her feathered fears
or a throaty hum to lull her?

Or is this an infant cry,
a hunger for nourishment
anxious in separation
waiting for mother’s
regurgitated assurances,
father’s watchful stance.

An onerous honk
breaks through
the high-pitched peep
and then, as
warmth wanes
a softer, sweeter
melody presents
followed by
a laughing trill

avian pleasure
prefacing night’s slumber.