I am proud to have one of my haiku selected for this week’s THF Haiku Dialogue! The theme was ‘failure’… and I felt sure the dung beetle, rolling his hoarded treasure toward home and oblivious to the danger, was surely headed for it! Blessings and peace, my friends.
loud mooing… the dung beetle blunders into milling hooves
quivering sawgrass focused on the same spot we wait, the hawk and i
Al W Gallia
Sunrise
How gorgeous the red-shouldered hawk looks in the morning sun, so intent and alert to its environment! Yet it allows me to stare and marvel at its uniqueness and beauty without any apprehension. I am so thankful whenever Serendipity chooses to expose her hidden secrets to me as she did at this moment.
“A taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors”
Out of the chill wind, I lean against the sun-warmed brick wall. A brief mid winter warmup lures my thoughts toward coming springtime in south Louisiana.
limp banana leaf a young anole warms in the winter sun
feeling the sunlight on my face I too thank our loving God
Al Gallia 2023
An impatient commuter honks his horn at another car! For the moment, I am brought back into the real world where we humans continue our endless, chaotic struggle of cultures, morals, religions, money and power. But only briefly, as then I let my senses flow back to the blessed solitude, peace, and oneness of God and nature, to the promised hope and deliverance of my Christian faith.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find…”
Very proud to have one of my haiku poems in the selections for the this weeks THF Haiku Dialogue!
scraping chalk nub writing five hundred times “no talking in class”
Al Gallia Louisiana USA
Starting First Line
Several of my elementary school years were spent at a Catholic school in Dallas, from which many special memories still float in my mind. The common discipline administered by the black-habited nun teachers for most classroom transgressions was writing a sentence repeatedly for hundreds of times on the blackboard or notebook paper. And then erase it when finished! Yes, occasionally I was sentenced to this terrible punishment which resulted in loss of play time and cramped fingers, and a permanent impression in my memory.
bare cypress quivering… tireless wavelets scurry before the icy wind
Al W Gallia 12-31-2022
Lake Martin, Louisiana in the winter! Not an egret, heron, or alligator in sight. Sunsets, cypress trees, blowing moss, shadows… all provide such beautiful settings and colors for poetry and photos. Love it!
I am very proud to have one of my haiku poems included the latest edition of The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Dialogue on Childhood Memories. Such a wonderful selection of international poets!
my chemistry set open on grandma’s table smell of burnt sulphur
a withering leaf…/ remnants of nature’s beauty/ litter the forest
Al W Gallia
Some things are timeless… not related to human manipulation and degradation. The beauty of unspoiled Nature in her virgin glory, a gift from our loving God, is at the top of my list:
A golden leaf swirling in a stream’s eddy; mottled sunlight on a blossom; a cardinal sitting on a limb; a sand-fall down a canyon wall; even a new dandelion rising through a cracked rock. Whether a fading leaf or a wizened old woman, innate beauty never changes and remains locked in time, unblemished forever.
a circling butterfly touches down on her finger tip breeze blown wildflowers
Al W Gallia
True beauty has no need of mankind’s touch, but only to be left alone to radiate and be appreciated.
Whether Covid or flu, surely most of us have experienced the helpless feeling of being trapped with no escape!
nearby coughing… the old man wishes he had brought his mask
Al W Gallia
That lurking evil virus or cold in the crowded waiting room…will it find me if I sit apart, stay still, and keep a low profile? Probably! Blessings and peace, my friends.