Maple Leaves

Maple leaves...
Golden foliage dapple fall
Bright change against the evergreens
Proudly branched your trunk and boughs
Prepare to stand through winter gales
Brave flags ye foliage proudly wave
Celebrate their steadfast dignity
Staunch against the winter fierce
Approaching on the horizon of time.

Rice Fish

As if rice with silver gilt was spilled

In flashing profusion into the estuary

Little fish are darting about

Densely packed wherever the eye can see

Below the shimmering sky on the waves.

A particular fish, with size pronounced

Swims rapidly near the surface

Speeding along as straight as fish could swim

Behind it lithe and undulating

Pale dappled belly towards the sky

A seal hunts

And snaps

Turning down in churning waters

Out of sight

As the fish is now

Forever more.

The seals frolic

In the rice pot thick of fish.

Golden Arcs

Golden arcs ripple forth
Radiating from roots and rocks
Where the quiet lap of the sea rebounds
Barely perceptible the surface waves
Who cast the golden ribbons down
To mingle in interlapping arcs
Over shattered shells and polished stone
Sand and pebbles, muted hues
Softened backdrop for light's play.

Water in the Wood

Sun rays fan out in the trees

Shining show the gray mists' flow

That hides from sight in forest shadow

Tasted on the rain washed air,

Green is joyous full of life

Dripping down in lingering embrace

Of forest and of waters sweet

The rain fall past but not forgotten

For its journey to the ground was slowed

That it might be savored by all the layers of life:

From the canopy whose leaves face the sky

To the liken and moss clad boughs

The vibrant undergrowth of shrub and fern

Devil's club and skunk cabbage in sun touched swamp

And the creek that winds under logs and moss

The dainty herbs in nooks high and low,

Sparkling droplets catch the sun

To be caught in turn by green or ground

The water cycle's merry sound

In quiet drops and exuberant flow

With the taste of the mist in the air.

Rain

Rills are running full of rain

Autumn storms are here again

In the forest fungi spring

Neath the leaves that winds will fling.

Stratification Lab

Dark blue brine on an a shallow slope

Ping-pong plankton afloat

Resting lightly in the water

Caged by translucent plastic

Exposed to the clear element above...

Water, fresh water, such as fills its core.

A slosh sends the layers waving

The blue curls up into fresh

Off the walls rebounding

While the shallow fresh water rolls into quiet.

Crystals of KMnO₄

Potassium permanganate

Fall in magenta streaks

Swirling right in the fresh water

Left in the salt

And darkening the interface

Where the ping-pong plankton floats.

When it settles the magenta traces chaotic patterns

As it settles, where it will.

Squeak, goes the styrofoam as it blocks off one part

Green, turns the water as the yellow is stirred in,

And then

The wall

Is taken

Away!

Mixed salt and fresh the green streaks in

Pushing up the magenta touched clear

And nosing above the darkened salt

Til the spectrum sits quietly

Magenta, green, blue,

And the purple of sediment enriched salt

Stratification that we may see

With eyes our own

Plain in the visible spectrum

As it cannot be

In the untouched reality

Of our home sea.

Sunny Beach from Shady Forest

Sunlight shimmers in the trees

Bouncing off the underside of leaves

Reflected there by gentle waves

From the sun across the bay.

A sturdy log reaches across the beach

Barnacles where the sun and sea may reach

Its roots merged with the bank

In the shelter of the forest.

The sun shines bright on beach and waves

Seagulls squabble, avian knaves

Seen beyond a leafy bower

Where the open eyes can rest.

From sylvan shadow and canopy

Cheery light on shore and sea

Lights the heart with a warm glow

Without harsh glare or heat.

Water rings in forest frame

Where fish to the sunlight came

Stripes of color ripple away

Fading on a quiet day.