comment from reader of mj poems in The Weekly Avocet

It’s been said old age ain’t for wimps. As I age I am starting to realize that’s an optimistic view. But if I want a reason to look toward the future I have but to read your poems. Good, very good. Imagery I must try to match.

Thank you, J.M. in Canada. As always, my talented friend who writes incredible haiku encourages me amid all the rejection. All the best, mj

of many greens

 so many intensities and hues of green

lime, jade, khaki, sea, bottle, emerald

pale near white, sickly gray

greens barely lifting from yellow; and those leaning hard on blue

jubilant greens with silver bellies flashing joy in the caress of the wind

tall, stately, haunting forest greens

mocking takeover blackberry leaves

with stems of thorns bruising black and pricking red to mimic ripening fruit

tender blades, fragile with new spring

tough corn husks, tanned brown to protect luscious yellow kernels

summer-suffering dirty, gray-brown

greens begging for autumn rains

evergreens dotting fields of snow

promising myriad greens if the rolling seasons continue to come

               Forest Grove to Lincoln City

choked compassion

i am wrung to sadness after

watching a rally reading

of The Snake poem by someone

who twists compassion

into suspicion and distrust

that chokes our seeking for solution

we have drunk full

we have drunk full, my love
swelled with the rynthm of incoming waves pounding earthly shore
connecting anemone, zebra,
and human

we have felt the tumult
of birthing waves roiled by breezes, currents, tides
our peace landed in stars

we have known
hovering, intense sky
algid, bleak, raw cold
embrittled bare twigs scratching
at ice-laced windows when frost
has cemented each breath of life
and each inhalation burned

you reached out
reminding me that love
like life
is gift watched over by angels

my love, we have drunk the wind

handbell flurry

handbell flurry

Bells of the Cascades’

fun Read and Ring

with so many ringing

the same note

it mattered not when

i made a mistake

because so many around me

far more skillful at sight-reading

that the melody came through

to be heard and appreciated

hopeful that even i

will be able to play

with practice

            mjNordgren  8/13/2022  West Linn

blundering

 haiku

 more research confirms

how little we know of life

yet how sure we are

lunch in salem

lunch in salem

 laughter and good food

shared with daughter and son-in-law

overlooking the golf course

family news and gossip

foibles and concerns

triumphs and challenges

more laughter, because we care

grateful

pictures from their wedding

enclosed in a thank you card

when it is i who was given

the privilege of being part

of their joy in celebrating

the hope, love and devotion

i, too, have cherished

will be boys

 haiku

strut their fantasy

tumble in mock fighting, then

boys rise as brothers

hoped-for relief

haiku

 gentle dawn snuggling

cool-wrapped clouds, hoped-for relief

of heat smothered fields

too long the pity party

 senryu

 numb at what i’ve lost

unbelieving she’s dying

all pity long gone

he’s all talk

 senryu

his gutter, moral

he loathes poverty’s milieu

cheats you with his words

D an Eagle

D an Eagle

eagle ceremony

grandson honored for hard work

in community

stand down and stand by

 elderly now we

watch rather than live for

as our progeny work out

their own mistakes

and hug their chosen in triumphs

observers now of what we gave life

and fought to nurture

we are left to learn

our own eternal being

luxuries

haiku

jet set not alone

in comforts, running water

electric fans, hope

stoker

haiku

eight days of intense heat

relative cool of pre-dawn

quaffed by fireball sun

even an ‘if’

 rejecting guilt does nothing to heal damage or to reverse

what we are doing to harm

even an ‘if’ i am part of what is happening

might make us aware of what we could do to help

forest fascinations

sunlight filtered to lace

glimmers in moving patterns

on dense forest floor

self hope

 haiku

 warm laughter’s promise

heals, transmits love, care, support

gives basis of self

know thy place

at the shore of trillium lake

with mt. hood reflected

in its majestic semi-snow of july

takes one’s breath in awe

as nature should when she

displays her beauty

or her power