Baseball haiku: Play Ball!

Posey's at the plate / Panik's on the run from first /
Belt awaits his turn.

Celebrating Major League Baseball's 

2016 Opening Week

with a series of haiku poems:

Fathers playing catch /
 Tossing the ball back and forth /
With their sons, all's well. 

Peanuts! Cracker Jacks!
The smell of fresh-cut green grass.
Batter up! Play ball!

The crack of the bat ...
Pence looks up to the night sky.
Catches the full moon.

Baseball on the air,
Nine innings of word pictures.
A hungry mind smiles.

Always playing, Pence /
We believe in Hunter Pence /
Pence, always cheerful.

Now pitching: Matt Cain.
Twenty-seven up, all outs.
Matt Cain: A perfect game.

Seventh inning stretch,
We stand, stretch, and sing: Take me
Out to the ball game ...

Long fly ball hit deep,
The crowd rises together ...
"It is OUT-TA here!"

Strike three called; game's over.
Giants win, the Giants win!
Life's good. Let's get even!

Photographs: All photos by Michael Dickens ©2016.

On the beauty of nature: the loveliness of quiet

Inside Golden Gate Park / The loveliness of quiet.

 "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

At the entrance of
Shakespeare Garden.

One of my favorite swatches of nature hidden inside San Francisco's Golden Gate Park can be found around the corner from the entrance to Shakespeare Garden.

It's a short walk -- maybe, a couple hundred yards -- from the de Young Fine Arts Museum, where I visited on a recent Friday evening. What I saw during the evening's twilight made a wonderful impression on me.

A majestic eucalyptus
tree in Golden Gate Park
that's full of character.

There are majestic eucalyptus and redwood trees that are full of character, some beautiful patches of green grass, colorful wildflowers, and a nice walking path that includes cobble stones. It's all topped off by a comfortable, brown wooden bench to sit down upon and enjoy a contemplative moment of thought or, perhaps, read a book or write in a journal. Best of all, it's peaceful and quiet. You can actually hear yourself think. Sometimes, the best things in life are still free.

Never underestimate the loveliness of quiet.

All photographs by Michael Dickens © 2014.