haiku

nature’s champions
are those with the most offspring
i have nine children

for Word of the Day Challenge

Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT)

I dropped in to check on my gold interests in Bagdad, Arizona, last week. Bagdad is the home of a gigantic open-pit copper mine run by Freeport-McMoRan. Gold is a respectable byproduct of the copper extraction process, which is where I come in. Looking into that unbelievable hole in the ground is always worth the trip to Bagdad.

Afterwards, I took a leisurely drive over to Prescott and Camp Verde to visit friends, and on into the Coconino National Forest to the Lowell Discovery Telescope, which receives its mail through the village of Happy Jack.

The LDT is owned and operated by the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, established in 1894. My friend Ivan is on the staff at the LDT, assigned to exoplanetary research. He studies young stars and young planetary systems using spectroscopy.

We discussed matters of astronomy and astrophysics while at the same time hiking deep into the forest, far from civilization and its interests.

for What Pegman Saw

suburban stays

I hadn’t seen my sister and her family for a while, so I arranged a visit with them in the suburbs. It’s always such an abrupt change in population density going there, that it’s a bit of a shock to my system. Families in homes laid out on streets, separated by grass and flower beds.

My sister and her husband and kids had friends scattered around the area and we would drive over to visit them. Stop at a market and pick up sundries needed for the day. Go to the occasional movie in a half-full theater.

I could only take it for so long and then I had to pack up and head out, back into the woods.

for April Writing Prompts

senyru

i do not aspire
don’t want to work all that hard
instead i covet

for Your Daily Word Prompt

haiku

awake too early
warming changes season clocks
we better wake up

for Ragtag Daily Prompt

haiku

tonight in the woods
life will proceed in the dark
i’ll be staying in

for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge

haiku

nature loves colors
like xanadu rain clouds
my xanadu hair

for Weekend Challenge

haiku

foxes can be bred
domesticated like dogs
it takes a long time

for The Sunday Muse

senyru

5 7 5

the slow loris moves
so slowly … s l o w l y … s l o w l y
it’s why it’s called that

for The Terrible Poetry Contest

poem

received a wire.
the news was dire.
there was a fire,
flames leaping higher,
with help stuck in mire
that clutched every tire,
making us shout why’re
the roads not drier
like they were prior.
nobody to hire
for help to acquire
except one liar,
a bogus friar,
in the past a flyer.

every chicken we own,
now a fryer.

for Saturday Mix – Rhyme Time