Haiku-a-day
A view of the sky above a cloister of the Benedictine monastery of St. John the Evangelist in Parma, Italy.

The same square of sky
over prayer and displacement,
for four centuries.

Haiku-a-day
Statue of a sheep under blue sky and light clouds in front of the Ducal Palace of Parma.

I just need the sun,
the moving sky above me,
and something to trust.

Haiku-a-day
A view from a castle wall of the Emilia-Romagna in springtime.

The Sunday sky gleams,
laid out like we intended,
blue sinks in to green.

Haiku-a-day
A plaque on the ground in Lerici, Italy from 1905 with the words on it in Italian: "Oh traveler who passes by in a hurry, stop for a moment, pick a wild flower and say a prayer."

We four travelers,
together by the blue sea,
making our wishes.

"Oh traveler who passes by in a hurry, stop for a moment, pick a wild flower and say a prayer."

Haiku-a-day
Memorial votive candles lit for those who have died, Parma, Italy.

The future will ask:
did you light candles for us,
think of us at all?

Haiku-a-day
An image of Mary outside framed by a rough gray frame without glass, dead flowers left as an offering, in Parma, Italy.

Saying the lost names —
how history moves forward,
the ancestor’s job.

Haiku-a-day
A sky blue building next to a cream-colored building with shutters holding small tin colorful pots and branches in Parma, Italy.

Blue building, blue sky,
small tin pots hung on shutters,
branches reach for May.

Haiku-a-day
Geraniums bloom on a windowsill with a satin purple curtain tied in a knot in a peach-colored building in Parma, Italy.

Taking in the sun,
geraniums fill the sill,
like an open eye.

Haiku-a-day
Correggios's Coronation of Maria, a fresco fragment from the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, Italy.

The weight of the glow,
marks every day of her life —
her long, dark heartbreak.

Haiku-a-day
White flowers bloom and cascade out of a window box at night in Parma, Italy.

Spring flowers spill out
of the evening window —
we smile underneath.

Haiku-a-day
The Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral in Parma, Italy on a sunny day in May.

Cathedral bells peal
even while I brush my teeth —
every thing holy.

Haiku-a-day
A gray pigeon sitting at the edge of a windowsill trying to peer past the shutters in Parma, Italy.

At the windowsill
the gray pigeon wakes the man —
won’t be reasoned with.

Haiku-a-day
An upward view of colorful buildings below a blue sky with dramatic clouds and sun in Parma, Italy.

River made of snow
flows into the warm city,
lit from within.

Haiku-a-day
A door marker of a man's head ensconced in fruit in Parma, Italy.

It keeps returning,
the history we make,
the lives we forget.

Haiku-a-day
A wild calla lily blooming in Lerici, Italy.

These calla lilies —
the first I’ve seen in the wild,
curled with smooth white capes.

Haiku-a-day
View of the Mediterranean Sea at Lerici, Italy on a clear day in May.

Friends on a high hill —
friends walk, amazed by the light,
the blue of the sea.

Haiku-a-day
Puffy white clouds against a blue sky on a sunny day over the bay, boats, and village of Lerici, Italy.

The sea light, unknown —
it breaks and makes us feel dazed
with faraway air.

Haiku-a-day
La Scapigliata (The Lady with Dishevelled Hair) painrting by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Gallery in Parma, Italy.

The light comes and goes
all day on her face, the hair
Leonardo drew.