haiku – Page 7 – Garden of Words

Midday Walk Haiku

St. John’s wort drooping
from the weedy embankment
in the hot July sun

when the rain comes down
I come down with it, breathing
and watching it fall

prodigal iris
everywhere but home they flaunt
their gyring petals

winter sun blinds me
and winter sun nurtures me
here, atop this hill

outside the wind blows
beyond wait friends and hot soup
but home’s so cozy

against bare branches
and the crust of snow
red berries still hang,
saying, “persevere”

the wind stops burning
I feel sun on the face
one moment, then another

wind sears the skin
on the hillside in the sun
no way out but through

the cold doesn’t burn
when the sun’s eight fingers high
and the wind is still

waited all year for
this white pine, this blue sky
this empty street

the mind is silent
sun slants into afternoon
the air, almost warm

bare branches tracing
against a cloudless, pale sky
sun sets them glowing

on Boston Common
sun shines the same on us all:
squirrels, humans, water

in the dappled shade
black and white kitty finds joy
chasing her own tail