Last night the temperature was below freezing. By mid morning, in the sun, the lizards and butterflies were back.
Mist hangs frozen
dancing in morning sunbeams
a butterfly.
Tag: sunlight
Sun-charred laughter
Photo©Arun Kulshreshtha.
Sunlight roars with a fiery voice,
Beneath its claws red stone flakes fall,
Your laughter breaks like charred black twigs.
As summer crawls from beneath the shade
Of spreading trees, silent and grave,
Sunlight roars with a fiery voice.
Harsh, it tears the walls, the heat
That pours from roof tiles, dripping gold—
Beneath its claws red stone flakes fall.
Limp the poplars, their voices hushed,
Where birds in thoughtful silence perch,
Your laughter breaks like charred black twigs.
Sun spots
For the dverse prompt—pepper
Salty air hangs heavy in the heat,
water sparkles with savagery,
and in bright pools of sun,
peppered with creeping life,
starlings peck and prod.
Heat beats down,
a musty blanket,
full of dust motes flying,
trying to escape.
I watch the river evaporate.
Pulse
Gems of light
fall silent as snowflakes,
dappling the back of your hand.
The city flows around and about,
but here on this bank,
between these trees
with dappled sunlight soft as snow,
nothing stirs
except the pulse of two hearts.
Haiku challenge: Top & Light
This traiku is for Ronovan’s weekly challenge.
Photo ©Mike Pennington
From clifftop plunges
a white-feathered lightning bolt
majestic gannet.
Painting ©Uthvfy62
The tree tops wind-dance
shot with light where sunbeams fall
speckled with birdsong.
Photo ©Michelangelo_36
Gold bottle tops gleam
in the grass caught by sunlight
throwaway treasure.
Cathedrals
A sequence of three-liners on the theme of cathedrals, stone and vegetal, inspired by Andrea Connolly’s Advent poem: Illuminate!
Coloured light on stone,
Cold flagstones where feet have trod,
Feet have trod on cold light.
Massy grey of silent stone,
Monumental veneration of vastness,
With eyes of coloured glass.
Grey stone, sun-caught glitters,
Silver-rippled water gleams,
Stained glass glows, filled with light.
Pale sun pours through branches,
Shadow dapples the russet red path,
Birds flit, flutter, leaves wind dance.
Cold sun on mist-spangled grass,
Green light and blue mist,
Red leaves scatter the December river.
Feet tread mist-spangled grass,
Stone-flagged rainbows echo hollow,
Hushed feet tread, robin sings.
Grass in mourning drenched
On November 14 I photographed the ornamental grass down on the quay, bowed down in misery.
Two weeks later, I photographed the same grass in the sunshine. Nature showing us what we have to do.
Grass in mourning drenched,
Wrenched into tangled,
Spangled locks by diaphanous mist,
Kissed by a dark sea wind.
Skinned raw with cold,
Hold hands wide to catch the rain,
Strain against the tears that prick,
Kick against the sorrow brimming,
Swimming in bleary eyes.
Skies above will change,
Arranging wild, mussed hair,
Fair and neat and sprightly,
Lightly dusted with dew.
New day dawns, warm, soothing breeze will pass,
Grass in mourning drenched.
Haiku challenge: Cover & Colour
A couple of words that are evocative enough to have inspired a few quick-fire haiku. For the other entries, please visit Ronovan’s Blog.
Waking light covers
golden landscapes, birds stirring,
colour of morning.
Cover the night stars
follow the sun’s path westward
scatter day’s colours.
Waves cover the strand
foam-fringed translucent dancers
sun-coloured magic.
Winter warmth
Strolling in the warm sun,
Into the soft south breeze,
The river glitters
Beneath whirling flocks,
Water ripples
To the noisy dance of the gulls,
Their plumage,
Colour of shadow on snow,
Only reminder
There is such a thing
As winter.
After the rain
There is nothing more uplifting
Than the sight of sunlight through the clouds
A golden torrent pouring from the broad sky’s sea
Turning the last drops of cold lead rain
To a river of cascading gems.
And when the trees are bathed in liquid light
From among the dripping leaves the music starts,
Triumphant robins shout their riotous notes
And listening enraptured we can forget
Just for the time of a small bird’s song
That winter lies on the dark side of the sky.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
