Misty autumn dawn—
 
with the sparrow’s first thin notes
 
my joy is renewed.

 
 
 

Over tea at dawn
 
we tell each other our dreams,
 
embellishing them.

 
 
 

Instead of coffee,
 
I sip water from a cup
 
as I watch for dawn.

 
 
 

Without the streetlights,
 
I would surely lose my way
 
on this pre-dawn walk.

 
 
 

After the solstice,
 
monks in the mountain zendo
 
meditate at dawn.

Snowflakes

 
 
 

Sometime after dawn
 
the first of many snowflakes
 
start to coat the oak.

Stopped

 
 
 

Bird at my window,
 
why have you stopped your singing,
 
now that dawn has come?

Blossoms

 
 
 

about plum blossoms
 
she sings from dawn till twilight
 
in a bird-thin voice

Hoarfrost

 
 
 

one sigh of hoarfrost
 
settling on a spider’s web
 
an hour before dawn

Storm

 
 
 

a Sudanese storm
 
roiling the river at dawn—
 
echoes of pharaohs