Haiku #321

Sitting outside on a summer evening, I spend time with
Buson. At the edge of the field, two red butterflies.

hard to make them out
through the blur
of reading glasses

Haiku #320

a tiny beetle
walks across Issa's haiku:
"life is cruel, cruel, cruel"

Haiku #319

my journal's blank pages--
dreaming of a murdered deer
two nights in a row

Haiku #318

on a highwire
mourning dove soaked with warm rain
I long for autumn

Haiku #317

mountain overlook:
names carved on a rusty rail
the empty sky

Haiku #316

the long shadows
Ryokan writing poems
in his loneliness

Haiku #315

taken all my life
to enjoy the robin's call
this summer evening

Haiku #314

you only hear them
when the cicadas cease--
evening crickets

Last of July

Summer deepens.
The drone of cicadas--
I can barely think.
A butterfly keeps beating
against the white shed.
The hot evening sun.
Cats hiss at each other
near the food bowl.
The dogs watch the driveway,
awaiting your return.

Haiku #313

lifting the nozzle
to spray the dogs--
I can't resist

First Fire

Turkey buzzards soar above the field.
Last year I saw them flying south. 
Their bodies looked heavy against the cold sky.
That same day, we brought the first wood
into the house to make a fire.

Haiku #312

sad, unending rain:
two white swans swim together
enjoying themselves

Haiku #311

sad thoughts
Queen Anne's lace bobbing 
in the rain

Haiku #310

three a.m.
even the house cricket
is sleeping

Haiku #309

little butterfly
lights on a cat's tattered ear
summer afternoon

Haiku #308

white butterfly:
walking into the birdbath
toward the water