Pearl water reflects
Red rim surrounding far clock,
Palest blue of sky.
Looking for breakfast
Geese zig-zag through piling field.
Slow-motion pinball.
In sunlight spotlight
Tanker powers upriver.
Two white gulls follow.
Archive for SJ’s Photos
Twelfth Saturday
Eleventh Saturday, from Independence, Ohio
Cardinal on branch.
Flock of starlings invades tree.
Red blur streaks away.
Granulated frost
Dusting cars in parking lot,
Vanishing in sun.
Traffic whizzing by.
Cars’ long shadows race ahead,
Slicing through morning.
I Love New York
A restaurant called Caliente Cab Company, which has been on the corner of Bleecker and Sixth for decades, has a giant foaming Margarita in a golden cup on its facade. Apparently the Margarita has recently been attracting pigeons. Management has installed a robotic owl to scare them away. Apparently it doesn’t work.
I love New York.
Happy Women’s Day!
Attitude is all.
New Lydia’s mother story
Thought I’d tell you I just sold a story narrated by Lydia Chin’s mother, Chin Yong-Yun. It’s called “Chin Yong-Yun Stays Home” and it’ll be out in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine probably this summer. Or fall. I’m trying to work up a collection of Chin Yong-Yun stories. (So far there are four.) When I have enough, I’ll do a book. Meanwhile, I’ll alert you when this one’s published. It’s set — of course — in Chinatown.
Tenth Saturday
Cold wind out of north.
Just a little bit early,
Crocus tips pierce soil.
Tennis ball floats by,
Neon green on blue water,
Bouncing on sharp waves.
Ducks on piling tops.
Seagull circles, flies away.
Bills tuck in feathers.
Every now and then I remind you here that if you want more haiku, here they are.
River report
Still chilly here, but you can’t fool a duck. Two male buffleheads chasing each other around, feeling the start of mating season. Buffleheads fly back to the Arctic to nest and raise chicks, but they start the process down here. Not a female in sight, but still, after they finished arguing over fishing rights (which argument included the losing duck diving, twice, and the winning one diving to chase him up from underwater) and the loser flew away, the winner did the dip-the-head-and-preen thing they show off with. Nobody around to be impressed with him but me.
Not a great photo, but: Da Winnah!
A little later, four red-breasted mergansers paddled by, with their seagull escort. The gulls don’t like the ducks — the gulls don’t like anybody, really — but they often hang around the diving ones because they bring up fish and occasionally drop them. The male mergansers were both showing off for the same female, while the other female just swam on, probably wondering when she’d become chopped liver.
Small flock
Showing off
Seagull escort
Ninth Saturday, one day late
Water slapping wall.
Runner singing to herself.
Traffic whooshing by.
Three construction cranes —
Two bright yellow, one dark red —
Angled on blue sky.
Single bufflehead
Flies in, finds his fishing ground
In river’s center.
Happy Tsaagan Sar!
Mongolian New Year, that would be. Like anyone else, Mongolians celebrate holidays with food. I haven’t been in Mongolia for Tsaagan Sar, but we did do a lot of eating this last trip. Here’s our guide, Alma, and our drivers, Naara and Ogi, setting up the kitchen:
And here’s one of many memorable meals:
Happy Tsaagan Sar!
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Best to all in this Year of the Monkey. Took this photo in Singapore, when a monkey family swung through the trees beside us as we strolled a path.
