pallisades

 

Country roads beckon on sunny Sunday afternoon. Put on farm cap and sunglasses, grab water bottle and hop into open jeep, painted red for fun. The warm sun smiles down on husband and wife as we bounce along past scenes of cud-chewing cows and cornfields.

Congenial conversation shortens our trek to a state park. We park jeep to hike trail which meanders along rock cliffs, laughing waterfalls, and the deep-pooled river. Walk up sweet sweat. Admire wildflowers, glimpse elusive deer, and discover a painted turtle.

We pause next to low stone dam where bullheads mingle towards evening. Hear gentle sound of water spilling over, see sunlight filter through trees to sparkle on river’s surface, and soak in this one shining moment, hand in hand.

 

leafy glade’s green growth—
natural sabbatical
under God’s heaven

 


Join Lillian at dVerse poetics for a traditional haibun/haiku challenge!

pining for fresh aire

Photo and prompt:  Carpe Diem “Time Glass” #6 “Pine Tree”


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( a tanka)

sunshine takes a hike

to mountaintop meadow of

fragrant wildflowers;

highlights lofty evergreens,

ancient monarchs reign from cliff.

what kind of flower are you?

My mother raised roses in lovely hues:

soft peach, pale yellow, and deep scarlet;

each properly pruned and sweetly scented.

I admired her backyard bushes in bloom,

squirmed under her careful cultivation as

she pruned flaws and nurtured character

I was of different seed by birth but

mom raised me like her own heirloom,

watered with tender attention until

Transplanted to Iowa and grafted to a farmer,

I find myself blooming like a wild prairie rose;

delicately fragrant yet proven to be hardy.

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