jpallen – Joe Pallen

#599 – September 2026

jpallen Haibun September 13, 2026September 13, 2026haiku, photography, september, summer 0 Comment

Morning Fog

I went for a walk early this morning. My first early morning walk in quite a long time, and I have missed them.

I headed out in the twilight, looking forward to what I had always thought of as a quiet time.

What I noticed this morning was that within this quiet time, there was a bit of action. Each time I turned my gaze toward the sky, there was a different view of the clouds — a different shape, a different color.

Bare hills of the Palouse after harvest surrounded me as cars passed by. At the nursery, a semi truck was running its engine. And in a large bush, the magpies were making quite a commotion.

And yet, within, a stillness.

color photograph of a creek meandering through grasses, flowing from the top to the bottom of the photograph with fog from a field rolling over the creek. There are a few pine needles from the tree out of focus in the upper left.

scent of morning fog/rolls off the field –chirp/of a dark-eyed junco

#598 – September 2026

jpallen Haiga September 10, 2026September 9, 2026haiku, photograph, september, summer 2 Comments

color photograph of a wide slow flowing creek at the edge of a small Falls. A great blue heron stretches out his neck and its wings as a walks along the edge of the falls the fall run horizontal, and the view of the heron is from the side

edge of the bike path/a growing shadow/sound of the bell

#597 – September 2026

jpallen Haiga September 6, 2026September 6, 2026haiku, photograph, september, summer 2 Comments

Color photograph of a lone Kokanee in the shallow waters returning to spawn

an ache in each step/Return to shallow waters—/fresh snow on the peaks

Photo: A Kokanee returns to spawn in the shallow waters of the Wallowa River.
September 3, 2026

#596 – September 2026

jpallen Haibun September 3, 2026September 13, 2026haiku, photography, prose, september, summer 4 Comments

When driving home in the early evening from Moscow to Pullman, I prefer to take the airport road. It is a slower drive than the main highway. I take my time driving the 35 mph speed limit with the local airport on one side and the Palouse hills on the other. This evening while coming around a corner, I saw her appear in the review mirror bathed in light and shadow. Arriving home, I grabbed my binoculars and tripod to get a closer look. From the driveway, I gazed at the filtered light on her surface. In the silence, I wondered why no one was out looking at this celestial wonder when from the darkness came a neighbor’s voice, “Beautiful, isn’t it?“