Haiku Seasons

Haiku Seasons

I. Autumn

Hoof prints in soft clay
hollowed by fine deer potter
still holding night rain.

Downy woodpecker
sidles up shag bark hickory
tat-tatting for food.

Geese black silhouettes
tangled tracery of trees
sketch fall gothic skies.

II. Winter

Pine weighted with snow
one branch launches white burden
springs up down, waving.

Juncos line the branch
slash marks on the calendar
counting days till spring.

Yesterday’s snowman
how soon folds weeping to earth
gravity of warmth.

III. Spring

Four fluffed doves
plump line on snowy branch
tin drip of spring thaw.

Language of droplets
ping ponging gutter downspouts
overheard spring nights.

On May’s brown plowed earth
only swaying black neck stems
honking into dusk.



IV. Summer

Thumbnail size tree frogs
rise, scatter like popping corn
fill my morning walk.

Birch limbs over lake
leaves shimmer reflected light
turn green silver green.

Fat pile of puppies
tangled in afternoon sun
sleep until hungry.

V. Infinity

Many times I glimpse
feeding bird or clump of earth
one returns my look.



your old lost loves

for I have left
the same handsome men
standing in photos
with that girl
from my past
seeing them grow younger
leaner, taller
each year
hearing their deep
fine words
in the rustle
of each fall's leaves

together
barefoot
we walk
country roads
ankle deep in mud
I turn to you
young laughing ghost
hubba hubba
never quite matching
your daring
ooh la la
I need those memories
fourteen kids
and no papa

some lovers I know
in stories
some by heart
for I stand
just as you did
on the same lake shore
watching darkness come
suns setting in unison
casting long shadows
one after another
across the years

old lost loves
you and I
clasping identical dark hands
smelling of clay and damp pine
hearing again
song of owl and loon
endless and lonesome
lingering night sounds
bouncing
echoing forever
back and forth across
a single lake
called time


Kimberly Blaeser