Peter Newton

Bask

The gold-faced clapboards awash in sunglow.
The meadow coming into its own.
The birds singing less and softer.
The days though shorter are imperceptibly so.
Bask, the sun advises in its golden hour.
We are under the spell of twilight light.
The bumblebees have grown wise enough
spreading their bumblebee dust
in pollen waves over the meadow.
At the wood’s edge where the sun catches
everything just so, a cascade of light.
We can do nothing but look up
caught in the pause of amber light.
Bask, the sun says. Be a sponge.

inside the sound
of water falling
a bed of moss

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About the Author

Peter Newton is the author of several books in the Japanese short form traditions of haiku, haibun, and tan renga. His newest book of haiku is Glide Path (Red Moon Press, 2022).