a riff on Basho

shaded by azaleas
she bends her back
to shred dried cod

urban warrior

before the second drop
can fall, an umbrella furls
close quarter drills

Parents of Newtown, CT

their eyes wide open
but their tears cannot flow
parents await the news

a breeze and memories

a soft breeze tousles
my hair as it passes by
so flirtatiously

Indian summer

Indian summer
of crisp air and bright sunshine
a recessional

chicken feet

field of chicken feet
untended grass at a churchyard
Resurrection

Noontime downpour

noontime downpour
my umbrella dry at home
devil in the details

green eyes

green eyes
so mesmerizing
in a summer's night

old mill wheel

green waters turn
an old mill wheel
so slowly

Orange blossoms

southern exposure
a window lets in summer
orange blossom breeze

Gray Fox

a gray fox
stalks
a silver moon

indifferent waves

a hard rain falls
on a bottle-green sea
indifferent waves

Optical illusion

Front and hindquarters
Seemingly unattached
Dutch Belted cow

Ants

line of black ants
crawling up a kitchen wall
so orderly

first kiss

night blooming jasmine
its perfume reminders
of a first kiss

Mount Kaguyama

mist shrouds a mountain
born before there were names
Kaguyama

raindrops fall on
a once smooth pond
such a disturbance

beach day's end

evening sea breeze
with a taste of ocean
end to a beach day

rows of white markers
all at attention
Memorial Day

Mango slices

slices of mango
glisten invitingly
on a chipped plate

Water spaniel

Paw prints on wet sand
leaving tracks as he races
gamboling spaniel

Seismic

last night's leftovers still rumbling so seismically

Playa Giron -- 17 April 1961

a land crab's claws
hold on so tightly
to a mangrove root

Remembering the brave men of the 2506 Brigade who fought so
valiantly to gain a beachhead and free their homeland, April 17, 1961.

seaspray

white, foamy seaspray
carries sun and smell
far from a beach

Bishop Agustin Roman called home

a priest at prayer
his hands hold a rosary
tenderly


Bishop Agustin Roman
Cuban exile
American bishop
Man of God
Called home 11 April 2012

remembering a brave woman - Julie Bonhoeffer

Just a small basket

filled with early strawberries

carried so proudly


Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to his faith and courage genetically. His grandmother, Frau Julie Bonhoeffer, after all defied the Nazis and at age 91 bought strawberries from one of the last Jewish merchants in her hometown. This simple act expressed her solidarity with Jews at a time when their persecution was becoming unbearable.

One year after the Great East Quake

solid earth betrays


the sea rushes to destroy

yet people prevail

the Greek crisis and the newly homeless

In front of bronze doors


they huddle against the cold

the newly homeless

an old lion

his once full mane

bedraggled, matted, thinning


yet his roar remains

broken teeth/ an old lion

with broken teeth

an old lion tries to gnaw

a bone but cannot

light from the Wolf Moon
on newly fallen snow
betrays a field mouse

breakfast

this morning's breakfast
growing cold
the pain of loss

for Jordan, gone too soon and for his mom

youth's bloom still on him
he leaves this life behind him
while a mother grieves