Blog Archives
Blue Monday: Love Stone
Yuma Pioneer Cemetery, Yuma County, Arizona
A stone to remember a dear one who’s gone,
A stone that reminds me from dusk until dawn
That someone is guarding my steps from above—
The name of that someone is, quite simply, Love.
Photo and poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Bittersweet
Mourning dove, Yuma Pioneer Cemetery, Yuma, Arizona
Deepening autumn—
the grey dove’s bittersweet song
settles on a stone.
Haiku © 2017 and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Midweek Motif at Poets United: “Bittersweet”
Mask
Aztec Ruins National Monument, Aztec, New Mexico
Yellow butterfly,
you rest within the shadows
that mask a stone wall.
Haiku and photo © 2017 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
The Dance
Dandelion, Apache County, Arizona
Noon.
A stone by the road
sets the scene
for the dance.
Farther down the road
a man without elbows
plays a flute
with his feet,
panting out wild notes,
and the desert,
which has waited
since it was created,
begins to stir.
Could anything
be harder
than shrugging off the eons
to shimmy in the sun?
More Macro Monday 2
More Sunday’s Whirligig #106
More Poetry Pantry #348 at Poets United
Songs
A dry wash in Apache County, Arizona
“I hear America singing,” Walt Whitman wrote, “the varied carols I hear.”
I too hear singing, but instead of songs coming from throats of carpenters, masons or boatmen, I hear the songs of sky and star and stone. The songs of weeds and wind and wild things. The songs of crow and cricket and cottonwood. All these songs come from the high desert, and like the Siren songs that seduced Odysseus and his companions, I cannot ignore them.
I hear them as I help a student proofread her essay. I hear them while I confer with a parent about his son’s behavior. I hear them while I am grading papers.
At day’s end, I slip into comfortable clothing and walk into the nearby wilderness. The stones and weeds and dust greet me with rejoicing. They knew I would come.
three stones confer with the wind—
my house is too small
Revised haibun © 2016 and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Poetry Pantry #323 at Poets United
Afternoon
An abandoned amphitheatre, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
summer afternoon—
looking past crumbling stone walls
to a bright blue sky
Haiku © 2016 and photo © 2012 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More SkyWatch Friday
Stone
Someone left a stone at Roxaboxen Park, Yuma, Arizona. (Read why people leave stones at Roxaboxen.)
Left for passersby to see,
This wee stone delighted me.
When I saw its shade of blue,
I thought right away of you
And the way the summer skies
Show themselves in your bright eyes.
Poem and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
More Macro Monday 2
Face
Coyote painted on a stone by artist Pat Hansen, Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, Yuma, Arizona
A face peers from the stone.
Text and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Macro Monday 2
More Six-Word Saturday
More Shadow Shot Sunday 2
Gathering
Agave in bloom, April 2016, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Southern California
gathering wisdom
from sky and lizard and stone—
agave blossoms
Haiku and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
Stone
Stone of remembrance, Yuma Pioneer Cemetery, Yuma, Arizona
Stone of remembrance
Painted in blue,
Placed near a tombstone:
“We still love you.”
Poem and photo © 2016 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
