Dove
Midsummer sunrise, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Little desert dove,
I listen for your singing
sunrise to sunset.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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Floods
Lockett Meadow Campground, Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona, autumn 2016
floods of memories—
revisiting photographs
taken years ago
Haiku © 2017 and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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Flood
August sunrise, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Lonesome little dove,
you flood the desert with song
morning by morning.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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Flood
Detail of a carpet in a church in Wellton, Arizona
If a mighty flood should come,
Sweeping through the church’s doors,
Carpets would be overwhelmed
As would all the parquet floors.
When the mighty flood subsides,
Just as in the Bible lore,
There will come an olive branch
From the One who makes waves roar.
Photo and poem © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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Blue Monday: Beware
Warning sign at a rest area on Interstate 8, Southern Arizona
Watch out for the critters that like to take bites
From parts of your body on dark desert nights!
Watch out for the rattlers and scorpions too,
Because if you’re bitten, we’ll surely miss you!
Photo and poem © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Brown-eyed girl
Detail from a mural in Artists Alley, Ajo, Arizona
A penny for your thoughts,
brown-eyed girl.
Can anyone grow wise
thinking only of the stars?
When shadows nestle in your hair,
becoming bent and crooked—
is that how wisdom begins?
What about the young boy
who loops himself around
the boa constrictor
and survives to tell the tale?
Will you be like him?
Will you have a tale to tell?
How will you begin?
A penny (that’s enough)
for your thoughts,
brown-eyed girl.
Scattered
Broken dinnerware, littering the desert near Yuma, Arizona
Can these scattered shards be repaired?
Photo and text © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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Note
The summer afternoon sky framed by the branches of a dead brittlebush, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
Summer afternoon—
a dove on a barren branch
repeats the same note.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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Crow
El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico
Crow in the pine tree,
will you ever stop mocking
what you can’t explain?
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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The worst of your poems
Fallen leaves along the Cache La Poudre River, Fort Collins, Colorado
Take the worst of your poems
and put them in the bottom left drawer
of the wooden desk that once
belonged to your grandmother.
Lock them away for at least
a year and a day.
Do not think about them,
do not try to revise them
in your mind
as you wash the supper dishes
or take the dog for a walk
or withdraw cash from the machine.
Leave them alone,
leave them for a year and a day,
and when you take them out again
you will see their flaws and imperfections
and you might change a word or two
but your regrets for having written them
will fall away
just as the red leaves
fall from the backyard maple
after autumn’s first hard rain.
Poem and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
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More Macro Monday 2
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Kintsugi: Art of Mending”
