green leaves fluttering
ever alert for dawn’s frost
blushes of autumn
Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge – Ever & Green
Green leaves fluttering poem: Haiku Challenge
Poetry
Splashes of Autumn – Tanka: LAPC & SSC
Splashes of autumn
Along verdant waterways
Beside winding roads
Within ancient lava beds
The glorious frocks of fall
Bison jump sculpture, painting, & poem: SS & LAPC
Bison sculpture
I saw this impressive bison jump sculpture at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. Free Fall, created by T.D. Kelsey in 2001, depicts a hunting method in use for hundreds of years. Hunters herded bison toward a steep cliff, where they fell to their death. As I’ve mentioned before, bison are dangerous and this is a safer alternative for harvesting them. At the base of this sculpture, piles of bones appear in a recreated archaeological dig.
T.D. Kelsey was born and raised on a ranch near Bozeman, Montana. T.D. Kelsey: Realist, Romantic, and Inspired Sculptor describes his background, including time spent as a rodeo cowboy, pre-med student, rancher, and airline pilot. With encouragement from his wife, Sidni, Kelsey eventually began working full time as an artist. His love for animals shows in this piece and other sculptures and paintings he created over the years.
Painting of buffalo jump
I’m also including a 1947 painting entitled Buffalo Drive, by William R. Leigh. This painting, located downstairs at the Center, shows the view from the top of a bison drive. Native people waved bison skins and sticks to scare the animals over the cliff. Later, they employed horses to move the animals. However, W.R. Leigh’s Buffalo Drive notes they did not use the woman’s pack saddle pictured for this activity. Riders rode with only a pad for quick dismounts and mounts.
Born in West Virginia, W.R. Leigh studied art at the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, and the Royal Academy of Art, Munich, Germany. While in Germany, Impressionism was gaining popularity, but he preferred a more realistic style. In 1906, Leigh visited New Mexico and in 1910, he went on a hunting expedition in Wyoming. Inspired by what he saw, he began creating bold colorful paintings of the American West. William R. Leigh, Frederic Remington, and Charles M. Russell are regarded as pioneers of art depicting the West.
Bison jump nonet poem
Both of these works of art show a bison jump from different perspectives. I’m concluding this post with one more interpretation, a nonet poem I wrote on this topic.
Pushed across the plains by First Peoples
Astride mounts, chomping at jaw ropes
Triggering a stampede,
Running from pursuers
Herded together,
Eyes wild with fear,
Jump off cliff
Escape
Fall
Do you wonder when you wander?: LAPC
Do you wonder when you wander
Where the path will lead?
Up to mountains,
Where scattering clouds reveal the peaks of possibility?
Down to deserts,
Where sandstorms expose the color of earth’s soul?
Over to ocean shores,
Where waves create cryptic messages in the sand?
Through dense forests,
Where trees of different character stand together as one?
Do you wonder when you wander
Where the path will lead?
Pushed by hot magma haiku: Haiku Prompt Challenge
pushed by hot magma
through ancient layers of rock
the pull of dawn’s light
Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge # 371 – Pull and push
Smiles of summer sun haiku: WHPPC
souls from the past send
wispy notes in azure skies
smiles of summer sun
Creatures of the mist – haiku: LAPC
creatures of the mist
graze in meadowlands of steam
whisperers of warmth
Rise swallow the wind: Haiku Prompt Challenge
rise swallow the wind
rapid plunge trailed by bubbles
joyful rays of sun
Within a small seed – 4 haiku: LAPC
within a small seed
a tiny new life slumbers
awakened by sun
emerald limbs stretch
stems lengthen and reach skyward
embraced by springtime
Wildflowers in the Desert – Nonet poem: LAPC & SS
Wildflowers in the desert sunshine
Emerging in harsh conditions
Shining with an inner light
Colorful expressions
Jewels in the sand
Ephemeral
Presences
Fleeting
Views
Wildflowers in the desert photographs taken at Gray Butte, Oregon in the springtime.
Water falling acrostic poem: LAPC
Water falling
And
Tumbling
Entering a
Rogue river
Finding
A course
Lyrical and
Littoral
Photographs of water falling were taken along Oregon’s Historic Columbia River Highway. For more information, and a map, see Waterfall Tour Loop.
Softness in the skies haiku: LAPC & SS
softness in the skies
adrift over layered tuff ring,
white veils eclipse sun
Skyscapes from Fort Rock, Oregon.
Old one’s last winter haiku: Haiku Prompt Challenge
bound by ancient roots
branches sway in desert winds
old one’s last winter
Walking with Winter in B & W: LAPC
Walking with Winter along a River of Falls
Where snow softens hard edges of steel
And creates ephemeral works of whimsey
Where snow and ice form furrowed bridges
Continue readingJuniper caught misty moon poem: Monochrome Monday
Juniper caught misty moon on a chill winter night
Struggling to escape, moon gave up on the fight
Scrub jays gathered atop the great tree
Pecking and prodding until moon was set free
Monochrome Monday in infrared
Frost spikes haiku: Haiku Challenge
Captured by frost spikes
Struggle against winter’s grip
Glints of sun, released
Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge #341 — Frost and Glint
On a distant shore: Pull Up a Seat & Haiku Challenge
On a distant shore
Rushing away from the flow
Resting in the ebb
Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompts Challenge # 332 Ebb, Flow
Recognizing a place in Placed: High Desert writings
I’m pleased to announce that one of my short stories was recently published in Placed: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon, Vol. 1. This slim volume, however, is not an encyclopedia in the traditional sense of the word. It contains a collection of poetry and prose about this part of the planet. Central Oregon includes sagebrush deserts, thick pine forests, winding rivers, and volcanoes lining the horizon. Placed embraces tales of the wild, but also stories related to unique features – like Ocean Rolls from a local bakery.
My contribution is The Toad Queen, written after encountering a Great Basin spadefoot toad in my yard. It is one of the most unique things I’ve observed in Oregon – unlike anything I have ever seen. I snapped a couple pictures of it and gently pushed it off the trail. This creature with such an odd appearance and life history deserves a special story.
In the morning light – 4 haiku: LAPC
In the morning light
Fireworks light up the fall sky
Amazement above
When the day breaks bright
We find our comfortable place
Basking in its warmth
Rounded river rocks haiku: Monochrome Monday
Rounded river rocks
Solitary standing snag
Weaving waterway
Monochrome Monday
Owls in the mist – Images & poem: BWPC
Owls in the mist
glide into view
on silent wings
Pondering us
Through eyes,
Round and wise
Hope in a sunrise – tanka poem: LAPC
A sliver of hope
glimmers on the horizon
A dark bud opens
delicate petals unfurl
Hope blossoms, filling the sky
Bright blossoms haiku: Friday Flowers
After waiting years
for bright blossoms to appear,
luminous at last
Friday Flowers
A silent symphony haiku: Friday Flowers
A deserted stage
Emptiness filled with blossoms
Silent symphony
Friday Flowers
Resplendent with crystals of snow: LAPC
Winds shift and winter blows
In from the farthest reaches of
North, carried on cold fronts
Turning landscapes into
Enchanted scenes
Resplendent with crystals of snow
Yellowstone in spring is a time to… : LAPC
Yellowstone in spring is a time to
Shrug off that old winter coat and
Feel the warmth of the sun
Continue reading
Columbine pictures and Haiku: Friday Flowers
Delicate flowers
Suspended from slender stems
Chime in pastel tones
Friday Flowers
Yellow flowers with petals radiating -Tanka: LAPC
A single flower
With petals radiating
Captures warm sunlight
To share on overcast days
Illuminating us all
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – One single flower
Wet and Wild Otters Haiku: LAPC
Wet and wild otters
Grateful for their liquid world
Tread into its depths
Gliding silently
Steering with slender rudders
In a search for bliss
Day breaks and clouds wait: LAPC & Sunday Stills
Precious little souls on Easter – Haiku
Precious little souls
Clad in curly woolen coats
Innocent and pure
Keeping our Distance: LAPC
Covered in coldness poem: LAPC
Covered in coldness
Obscured from view
Layered in lightness
Dazzling and new
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Cold
Watching & waiting for clouds: LAPC
Watching & waiting for clouds
Turning the sky into a color collecting kaleidoscope
Expressing their thoughts with fiery punctuation
Bright bouquets of fall foliage poem
Autumn
is bright bouquets
shining in fading light
warming our souls through the winter
season
Elk of the Shadows: LAPC
Solitary grazer
Hiding in filtered light
Antlers flocked in
Downy velvet
Oblivious to his
Wonder
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Shadows
Bye-bye Brother
Farewell to my little brother
From flying his food into his mouth as a toddler
To piloting F-15’s and commercial jets as an adult
My brother soared to great heights until
Cancer struck him down
May he use those wings he has always had
To fly to his next destination
Bright Passes
Storms can be raging around you
Clouding your judgement
Darkening your mood
Look for the passes
On your horizons
Make your way
Across the low spots to the
Brightness beyond the barriers
Weekly Photo Challenge – Elemental
Purple punctuation
Purple wildflowers
Punctuating dry deserts
With cool regal tones
Bark – Tanka poem
White-headed woodpecker, Picoides albolarvatus
Bark
Protects hidden hearts
With tough layers of texture
Clinging and peeling
And revealing small glimpses
Of tenderness deep within