quiet communication

haiku

how to talk across

emotional divides rests

on listening well

how to respond

 haiku

react to Bluffo’s

moth-like destruction of trust

and relationships

minutes to look at clouds

 seven minutes between frantics

to lie on my couch looking at the clouds

in layered blue-gray, even tinges

of purple-green, some butting

some seeming settled into immovability

but moments of giving myself

permission to breathe in my new home

and know how deeply blessed i am

unminted gold dawn

pale sunrise of washed-out orange

and unminted gold

but navy-blue horizontal clouds

and distant hills and far distant

mountain silhouettes

patterned by branches in black

of near-by pine

gift from Miller and Thompson

 haiku

a gentle anthem

re-dedicates despite pain

or war, “I Choose Love”

resentment

again resenting as the same people

take without acknowledgement

and the leeches demand more

when i feel i need help

that it is the same people i have

worked for for years should tell

me that nothing has changed except

within me

admit i am hurt, tired, overwhelmed

and protect myself to allow me to heal

as resentment is almost as defeating

as whining

range

mt hood pine-screened, misted

by distance and chilled morning dew

tinged now with warming orange

as the sun insists on break of day

from far beyond our little planet

stone walls

 each step met by a stone wall

frustrating but coming to be expected

most frustrating because i am less

and less capable of handling

the challenge on my own

but i will get this done. I will.

painful question

 i have a question i do not want

to put to paper

the implication of what happened

to me twice

is something i do not want to be

true

but if it is happening to me, it is

happening to people less able to

defend themselves

and i cannot simply turn away

FLICKER

HAIKU

FLICKER OF PEARL LIGHT

AGAINST GRAY-BLUE HILLS AND SKY

WINTER’S COLORS SMALL WARMTH

fear > adventure

we know not the night sky

having turned our light to pollution

the black velvet is more a musty gray

but we feel safer crouched in our hole

as fear triumphs over adventure

since we last about that long

haiku

 quaint marks in the sand

drawn by stick in time to laugh

at human serious

                                                mjNordgren  2/16/2025  mg

transient

huge, fluffed flakes in a transient blizzard

flung against the windshield

of my daughter’s car as she gave me her

warm vest to take me home from the hospital

after staying with me for hours when

when i could not find the words to speak

meteorologists had promised again and again

for weeks, but still the snow did not lie or

stay, only promise, threaten and show before

leaving with a taste of disaster to be heeded

domineering

haiku

 enormous full moon

enlarged by haze, man-made smog

dominates night sky

dawn steals the velvet

dawn steals the velvet of night

so slowly claiming sun’s paling

of the sky to silhouette tall pines

and etch distant hills onto the horizon

your part in your imprisonment

feeling helpless feeds

the power of the deceiver

who cares nothing for your pain

moods of early February’s sky

moods of early February’s sky

winter, watercolor sky surrounds

my seventh floor apartment

giving me perspective beyond

residential rooftops now glittering

frost and the west hills of the city

glistening in patches of white

gray-blue demanding that i find

my paints in unopened boxes and

attempt to capture on rough paper

the moods of early February’s sky

and distant, evergreen hills

piercing the sky

 elongated, fluttering arrow point

after arrow point nearly-continuous

flying south in the hundreds

now that western Oregon is convinced

that snow, sleet and ice will soon

overtake this so-far-mild winter

late start but coming

 haiku

chill plus rain tonight

sleet and snow in the offing

January winter

learning to say no

rather than feel

resentment

i need to say no

i am here because i have

needs i can no longer

handle on my own

i have so little left

to help others

i must say no

to what you ask

and even demand

of me, take it

as you will