Mute Acorns: Haiku-forms from the Santa Teresa Hills

Ichi.

Fog fills these valleys
City is heard but not seen
Hills rise above fog

Trees and rocks are here
The dying leaves, the green shoots
Ignore distant roar

Covering growth hides
This traveler from sun's light
When will I be found?

Acorn drops from oak
Shining carrier of life
Is mute on subject


Ni.

Low sunlight reveals
Arachne's glimmering shroud
Blanketing felled leaves

Gray, ground-clinging cloud
Does not obscure bright blue sky
Lit by hidden Sun

Morning sun glances
Across the living palette
Ivory, gray and blue


San.

East Wind blows swiftly
It flies sure, as eagle flies
Pulling sun aloft

Gusts roll endlessly
Bending brush, flushing bobcat
They know its power

Wind and trees combine
In counterpart, balancing;
A robust embrace

Calm hill does not yield
Giving purchase to beings
Unwilling to fly


Shi.

Lichen lives on oak
Oak pierces earth, reaches sky
Man merely visits
Grass pretends to yield
To man in his ambition;
Then encloses him

Hawk: she dives, swoops, glides
At ease in setting sunlight
Man: becomes oak, rock


Go.

Insect-buzzy day
Foxtails toss back bright sunlight
Nodding their welcome

Mountain ridges build
Silently toward the sky
Hiding dark canyons

Folds of female hill
Shrub-covered, sheltering life --
Mating butterflies!

Buzzards soar swiftly
Ridge to ridge and back again
Silently searching


Roku.

March winds in autumn
Graceful golden poppies bloom
Nature's playful whim

Lull between rainstorms
Earth drinks, shares with seeds and roots
Sun daubs green on hills

Abstract sky confused
By change of wind and season
Awaits Nature's cue


Shichi.

Two-hill climbing day
Each is home to white-tail kites
Hiding now from sun

As do the wise say
Many paths one place to find
So as with this hill

Deer path now man-path
Up up through brush deep full breaths
Animal body

Startled family
Gives wide berth to sweating beast;
Claims green hill as his


Hachi.

Scrub jay on fence rail
Waits for man at end of path
Scrams as he arrives

Late fall sun in haze
Diffusely casts its shadows
Radiance burns through

Quiet hillside rests
Trees, brush, grasses -- all are still
Only insects move


Ku.

Man at peace in trees
Small creatures parade on him;
Peace at any price?

Ant belongs in earth
Bird belongs in trees and sky
Where does man belong?

Merging with the trees
Spirit flows toward sky and earth
Drinking, swaying, still

Man sees earth, air, sea
Ants, birds, fish see other realms
Who, then, sees The Whole?


Ju.

Familiar path
Is rent by rainstorms torrents
Showing naked earth

Yes, the rock, the oak
Are here after the deluge
It is a comfort

See how the streams flowed!
Running over man's patterns
Carving creeks, gullies

All will flow down hill
By water seeking its source
Rocks and trees will go

Man will have gone too,
But now he has Oak and Rock
As unchanging friends

02/23/2002

Posted on 02/23/2002
Copyright © 2025 Ronald A Pavellas