Ray Sherman
Creations Musical,Philosophical, and Poetical

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High Desert Haiku (51—100)
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51
While closing the blind
 I see the half-moon setting.
—I stop to look.
52 
Wispy little cloud
 floating above our desert 
  dissolves in hot air. 
53 
Below the birdbath: 
 Sweet Alyssum giving thanks 
for spilled water. 
54 
Orange butterflies 
   swirling around on the ground? 
  —No.  Autumn leaves. 
55 
Yes, winter is here: 
 bare fruit trees; brown tumbleweeds; 
and frozen birdbath.
56 
Sunny, warm, no wind,
the end of February; 
winter's over.  Not! 
57
Penned up in the yard, 
 running around in circles. 
A trapped tumbleweed.
58
A bird with white stripes
 in the olive tree, grooming
while it softly rains.
59 
A red-breasted wren 
 standing on our backyard fence, 
  showing his colors. 
60
Our yard is full of 
 spring grasses and wild flowers. 
  A mini-meadow.
61
Snow on the desert?
 Yes, sometimes, but not tonight.
  That's moonlight you see.
62 
I've often wondered: 
 Why does the mouse cross the road 
  in front of my car? 
63 
On the patio, 
 chasing each other around: 
  two poppy petals. 
64 
Strewn across the yard:
  white desert-primrose blooming. 
  But one is yellow.
65 
It's broad daylight and 
 an embarrassed coyote 
skulks across the road.
 66 
Look: up over the 
 snow-dusted San Gabriels, 
  Old Baldy peaking. 
67 
A couple of wrens 
 have left off their nest-building. 
  It's time to peck lunch. 
68 
A bunch of spring birds 
 swinging on springy branches 
  of a creosote.
69
Tumbleweeds racing
 to who-knows-where, their journey
  ended by a fence.
70
First day of winter
 (cold winds and dying flowers),
  a month too early.
71 
All the fall colors 
 are there, resplendent in the 
  autumn cottonwoods.
72 
A December night. 
Suddenly very quiet. 
(—Yes, it's snowing.)
 73
A walking-stick has
 been there on our screen all day.
Not walking an inch.
74 
Reds, greens, pinks and blues 
 kaleidoscoping into 
  the blackness of night.
75 
This warm autumn day 
 I am looking at the last 
primrose of summer.
 76 
Tulips from Holland 
 thriving in the High Desert. 
Small world after all.
77
Wind and lightning— 
 and thunder and blowing dust! 
Look at that cat run!!
78 
Unseasonably
warm for mid-February. 
  And there's a poppy!
79
Lying on his back, 
 he's showing us his profile: 
 the man in the moon. 
80 
Two ravens in a 
 Joshua tree conversing in 
  alternating squawks. 
81 
The dark of the moon.
My flashlight's beam guides my way 
to distant mailbox.
82 
Yucca and poppy 
all abloom in October. 
Spring's second coming. 
83 
We know that April 
showers bring May flowers, but 
enough is enough. 
84 
In wave after wave, 
swarming across the fields— 
butterflies galore. 
85 
Two blooming poppies!!
And where are all your comrades?! 
It is spring, you know! 
86 
A wounded Joshua
with a broken limb that leans
lifeless on the ground.
87 
Too cold and windy. 
All the poppies are closed up 
for the afternoon.
88 
Heavy rains! Weeds! Bugs! 
An infestation of wrens! 
What hath nature wrought? 
89 
Blue myrtle, orange 
poppies, red rose, white primrose. 
Bees' favorite colors. 
90 
After the snow: Sun, 
a flooding from the rooftops, 
and steam everywhere. 
91 
Above a bank of 
grey clouds, a silver sliver,
in the not-quite night. 
92
In late winter's warmth 
two fruit trees have new blossoms. 
Look, a hummingbird!
93 
Ninety degrees out, 
but whiteness of winter is 
still on the mountains. 
94 
An overcast sky, 
a nice breeze, moving branches. 
The rains are coming. 
95 
Big white popcorn balls. 
This year is a good year for
Joshua blossoms.
96 
Saint Pat's Day coming. 
The hills have decided to 
show a touch of green.
97 
Feathery cypress 
branches 'gainst a dark'ning sky. 
They need pruning. 
98 
Look, low-flying clouds 
     (I can almost touch them) move, 
slowly, overhead.
99 
The rainy season: 
Clouds every color of grey,
damp sand, full birdbath. 
100 
Left-over raindrops 
 glistening on a bush as 
  the sun reappears. 
       
1—50

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