It's supposed to help people coping with grief. Maybe because it's spooky season, my mind ran with this in totally another direction...

disconnected phone
that rings when the passer-by
is about to die

or:

when i picked it up
expecting only silence
a faint, reedy ring
do i dare stay on the line
to find out who will answer?

#haiku #tanka

https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2023-10-06/connected-by-love-in-ridgefield-an-old-rotary-phone-helps-people-cope-with-grief

long week's end
a drizzle unleashes a
subtle petrichor

#haiku

the starlings flowed
in a near-sentient swirl
across the dawn sky

#haiku

Sometimes just the trip out to the forest is as much a part of the "getting away" as the hike.

car exhaust fades, then
wood smoke, in turn, gives way to
sweet ferns and dry leaves

#haiku #haiga

Sometimes, that's enough.

empty zen garden
nothing to offer but
silence and falling leaves

#haiku #poetry

a fever broken,
windows open for cool nights:
finally, it's fall

#haiku

This was from a few years ago, when we were having an unseasonably warm end-of-September.

it's too damn hot out!
attempting to summon fall:
pumpkin spice candle

#haiku #poetry

distant wildfire smoke
mingles with the famous fog
scent of grey, stale ash

#haiku #poetry

https://abc7news.com/bay-area-air-quality-sf-california-fires-smoke/13809198/

I also thought of doing this as just a #haiku :

california's
iconic eucalyptus
invasive, like us

fleeting magic
from the bay ripples, an arc
leaping porpoise

#haiku #poetry

Apparently at some point, someone released #parrots into #SanFrancisco. There's now a couple of resident colonies, including at a park near the Embarcadero. I heard them long before I managed to spot a flock in flight.

incongruity
the riotous cacophony
of urban parrots

#haiku #poetry

When I have a day off, I often have a nagging sense that I need to "do" something with it. I need the reminder that sometimes it's ok to just meander.

ephemeral path
needs neither plan nor purpose
pond blossom adrift

#haiku #poetry

They look so graceful in the water, but so clumsy on land...

sprawling lazy lump
the floating dock his cradle
sunning sea lion

#haiku #poetry

the brown pelican
glides straight & low, silent as the
san francisco fog

#haiku #poetry

san francisco fog:
others may roll in, but here
it marches, invades

#haiku #poetry

I don't know what good he thinks it's going to do, but he does it every time there's a thunderstorm...

wave on wave crashes
the neighbors' old, tiny dog
barks in defiance

#haiku #poetry #dogs

cool, breezy porch
shades shift to match the season
autumn annuals

#haiku #poetry

Fish? Frogs? Other? I was never quite quick enough to catch a glimpse of them during my lakeside hike. I couldn't think of what water sound to use, so I went with a callback to Basho.

the sound of water
their presence known only by
their disappearance

#haiku #poetry #cosopoetry

There was a whole swarm of them, moving with mesmerizing coordination.

an intricate dance
its steps known only to them
water skaters

#haiku #haibun #poetry

a lone cricket
defies the distant thunder
to call to his kind

#haiku #poetry