Mike Dailey Poet Haiku

Southwest Landscapes

Five in the morning
Orange and red glow in the east
A new day is born

A single rain drop
Looks to be the final straw
Now the flood begins

Albuquerque view
Volcanoes on the mesa
Since the age of time

Once green and growing
Now brown and brittle and free
A Tumbleweed's life

With long floppy ears
And kangaroo backleg kicks
It roams the mesa

Bone dry arroyo
But when the rains fall heavy
A river runs wild

Blackened pine tree trunks
Struggling to regain life
Only time will tell

Blistering sunlight
Sheltered cove of solid rock
A sliver of shade

Multicolored hues
Cliffs of reds, browns, blacks, and whites
Southwestern landscape

Red rock formations
As far as the eye can see
And way back in time

Rocks piled upon rocks
Balanced precariously
Thousands of years now

Upright arms of green
Prickly needle point barbs
anchored in the sand

A typical day
Arid heat of one-o-eight
No humidity

All along the ridge
Patiently waiting for years
Arms lifted towards God

Two thousand years back
These cliffs were inhabited
Why did they all leave

Striated hillsides
In the land of enchantment
Navajo glory

Six-sided hogans
Grandfather's ancient design
Still in use today

Cemetery stones
No tree to provide them shade
What a sad, sad sight

Knarly old pine tree roots
Wrapped around an ancient stone
Holding on for life 

Fluffy white mountains
Filling up an azure sky
Will it rain today?

Dancing dust devils
Whirling twirling to the sound
Of the wind's music

Shimmering mirage
The desert laughs at the lost
Nature's cruelty
A dry washboard road
Miles out through the desert
A crystal blue lake

Manmade lake at damn
Stopping mother nature's flow
Do we have the right?

Upturned leaves on tree
Frantically waving in wind
Soon the rains will come

He rattled his tail
Demanding respect from all
We complied as one

Sun rises, sun sets
Twenty four hours are over
Accomplish anything?

Not a sound was heard
Footprints only in our wake
The desert winds sleep

Not a sound is heard
Footprints only in our wake
The desert winds sleep

The crunch of gravel
Undeveloped housing roads
Early morning walks

The smell of wood smoke
Memories of the Southwest
Couldn't help but smile

Warming in the sun
Like a lizard on a rock
What a view I had

Morning wakeup call
Bacon wafting through the house
Even I got up

Pollution puddle
Reflecting rainbow colors
Do we call that art?

New Mexico winds
Neither unseen nor unheard
Constantly blowing

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Poet Destroyer A April 29, 2016 at 10:43 PM Mike, Well done. Glad to read your poem today. Love -LINDA-

Ilene Bauer July 12, 2015 at 4:09 PM i was surprised to see all these haikus from you, mike, but they're all wonderful and really capture that southwestern scenery (which i happen to love). Mike Dailey July 12, 2015 at 4:23 PM Haiku is not something I do very often but we have a Haiku tree in the local library and they asked for more input. I was on a 3 week vacation to the Southwest and sent back over 50 verses of Haiku style poetry to the coordinator. I hope I can go back to my usual rhythm and rhyme so I can stop counting syllables on my fingers. Thanks for the encouragement. Mike

Pandita Sietesantos July 11, 2015 at 10:22 PM Beautiful string of brilliant haiku, Mike! The imagery is amazing and even more meaningful as I had the distinct pleasure of visiting New Mexico a few years ago! It brought back lovely memories! It gets a 7! Mike Dailey July 12, 2015 at 9:02 AM So glad you liked the poems. I had not written Haiku very much but we had a Haiku tree in our local library and they were asking for poems to post so on my vacation I thought I would take a stab at it. I ended up writing more than 50 verses during the three weeks. Check out some of my other poems if you want to see what I usually write.