Jack Groundhog 📸📝

👁️ A closeup of a colorfully stained window frame on a half timber house 📍 Potsdam 📅 17 Apr 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 100, ƒ3.5, -1.3 ev, 1/200s

Mirror

Weathered window frame’s
deep grain stained with fading paint —
colors hide the cracks

#haiku #poem #poemaday #poetry #photography

👁️ A square recessed shuttered window in an outer stone wall in the light of the setting sun 📍 Belvedere on the Pfingstberg, Potsdam 📅 18 Mar 2024 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 100, ƒ4.5, -0.3 ev, 1/100s

Pacem

A shuttered window
recessed in fractured stone wall —
eyes closed for last time

#poem #poemaday #poetry #photography

👁️ A statue of Jesus seen from behind in an arcaded cloister under a cloudy sky 📍 Church of Peace (Friedenskirche), Park Sanssouci, Potsdam 📅 15 Mar 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 100, ƒ22, -1.0 ev, 1/15s (long exposure)

Sermon

He stood on a high mount to speak
and spoke words that were meant to stay.
But the people turned from him in a pique
when the wind whisked his words away.

#poem #poemaday #poetry #longexposure #monochrome #blackandwhite #classicmono #photography

👁️ A series of arches in the arcade of a Neo-Romanesque church 📍 Church of the Redeemer, Sacrow, Potsdam 📅 30 Jul 2024 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 25600, ƒ22, -0.3 ev, 1/125s

Column

Stone pillar. Arcade
around an old village church —
one sun, many shades

#haiku #poem #poemaday #poetry #monochrome #blackandwhite #classicmono #photography

👁️ A church interior with a starry ceiling and three statues of saints between the windows 📍 Church of the Redeemer, Sacrow, Potsdam 📅 20 Oct 2024 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 180, ƒ2.2, -0.3 ev, 1/80s

Crossing

Wooden saints’ statues
in shadows between windows —
boatsmen at river

#haiku #poem #poemaday #poetry #moody #monochrome #blackandwhite #classicmono #photography

iii.

No tear is heard.
They shift their shade.
One flight of birds
and they're remade.

Clouds spin and roll
while old house waits.
Sky-fabric folds,
accumulates.

✋🏼🧵

ii.

spins to sky-threads.
Old building stands
beneath their bed,
traced by the strands

of stucco’s paint:
intricate wall,
tapestry-faced,
like clouds that fall

into fixed weave.
The clouds reform:
they do not grieve
when their cloth’s torn.

🧵👇🏼

👁️ A building with an intricately painted stucco façade under puffy clouds 📍 Staroměstské náměstí (Old Town Square), Prague 📅 9 Jun 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 640, ƒ16, -0.3 ev, 1/800s

Cumulus
A #poetry thread

i.

In cobbled square
of Prague’s Old Town,
the clouds prepare
in seamless sound:

they dip and swell.
They softly curl
into themselves —
sky cotton swirls,

🧵👇🏼

#poem #poemaday #cityscape #monochrome #blackandwhite #classicmono #photography

ii.

Old mortar of the stones
with long-supporting beat
falls silent with a groan.
The arcade sounds defeat —

Two are torn asunder.
Why, they both will wonder.

✋🏼🧵

👁️ A view from one side of an arcaded cloister to the other with cracks visible in the stone and plaster 📍 Church of Peace (Friedenskirche), Park Sanssouci, Potsdam 📅 5 Feb 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 100, ƒ22, -0.3 ev, 1/5s (long exposure)

Arcade
A #poetry thread

i.

Arches sang a rhythm
now broken by the cracks:
stones are split, and with them,
the roof begins to slack.

🧵👇🏼

#poem #poemaday #longexposure #monochrome #blackandwhite #photography

ii.

Pause at the threshold,
chisel at my choice
while I’m growing old
and losing my voice

to this wormwood time
that I’ve spent with her.
I hear church bells chime:
they toll. I must turn.

✋🏼🧵

👁️ A view through a palace gate to the bridge and town beyond 📍 Schwerin Castle 📅 20 Aug 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 250, ƒ10, -1.3 ev, 1/640s

Threshold
A #poetry thread

i.

At the palace gate
built of old stained stone,
heart and mind debate
to leave or atone —

do I stay where I am
where I’m kept, yet trapped —
do I crack this dam,
let loose, flow at last?

🧵👇🏼

#poem #poemaday #monochrome #blackandwhite #classicmono #photography

👁️ An Amazon milk frog rests inside a hollow log 📍 Biosphere Potsdam 📅 25 Jan 2026 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 800, ƒ4, -0.7 ev, 1/800s

Hollow

Hollowed log, wetness —
Frog hears the pitter-patter
between the raindrops.

#haiku #poem #poemaday #poetry #frog #reptile #naturephotography #animals #photography

iii.

the green apology,
the borrowed bark and leaf.
I learned the world will judge us anyway;
I chose to live my own motif.”

This steadfast lizard’s pose,
in plain sight, without a fear,
impressed me. So I too chose
to refuse to disappear.

✋🏼🧵

ii.

His great glow-red eye —
it made me think of HAL —
fixed its stare on me, so I
sat down for him to tell

me why he kept this offbeat style.
He smiled and took his cue:
“You may ask me why I shed the guile
my kind has always liked to use —

👁️ A panther chameleon strikes a pose in full neon color 📍 Biosphere Potsdam 📅 25 Jan 2026 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 2500, ƒ4, -0.7 ev, 1/60s

Chameleon
A #poetry thread

i.

I met a wild chameleon
who refused to change his spots.
Cyberpunk, aglow like X-ray barium,
tattooed with bright neon dots.

#poem #poemaday #naturephotography #photography

iii.

tugging at the threads
that held up his gold tapestry —
she, like others, shared his bed,
and not voluntarily.

From out of the shadows
of where she hid, safe in obscurity,
her poison began to flow —
and he felt stronger gravity.

✋🏼🧵

ii.

This tiny little thing
looks like it takes fright,
but within its black skin clings
a poisonous might.

Meanwhile…

…far from the frog sat an orange man
who felt safe as chief of state
until a tiny also-ran
pulled far above her weight,

🧵👇🏼

👁️ A yellow-banded poison dart frog (also called bumblebee poison frog) under a canopy of foliage. These are among the moist poisonous types of reptiles. Their poison is used by Central and South American Indigenous for making lethal darts (hence the name) 📍 Biosphere Potsdam 📅 25 Jan 2026 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 1600, ƒ5, -0.7 ev, 1/640s

Poison frog
A #poetry thread

i.

Little black frog
with bright yellow stripes
sits on a fallen log
hiding from the harsh daylight

under an umbrella
of tropical leaves,
croaking a capella
In the song that it weaves.

🧵👇🏼

#poem #poemaday #naturephotography #photography

iii.


And she’s right. My place
is merely bigger than hers.
The dark orb of space
walls my blue bowl earth.

✋🏼🧵

ii.

I said, through the voir,
why yes, and pointed out
that she’s in a jar —
then had a little doubt.

Sure enough, she spoke with glee,
with a knowing smile:
you’re in a bowl like me,
you’ve known it for a while.

🧵👇🏼

👁️ Two fish as seen through the glass of an aquarium 📍 Biosphere Potsdam 📅 25 Jan 2026 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 1600, ƒ5, -0.7 ev, 1/200s

Aquarium
A #poetry thread

i.

I watched a fish
in an aquarium.
Her bright tail swished —
I heard her over the hum:

She spoke to me
through thick blue glass
and asked if I felt free
as she swam a languid pass.

🧵👇🏼

#poem #poemaday #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #photography

You're holding back?

iii.

He knew he was loathed
by all in the zoo,
so he crowned himself king
of all that he knew

and swallowed it whole
’til his gut nearly burst —
yet still he kept feeding
his bottomless thirst.

And now he lies there
on top of his tree,
engorged and distorted
for all eyes to see.

✋🏼🧵

ii.

He made it up there
by shedding his skin
again and again,
each layer worn thin,

for he brooked no dissent
nor doubt of his scales.
This slick serpent slept
on a fake bed of nails.

🧵👇🏼

👁️ A Central American boa resting on a tree branch and basking in a heat lamp 📍 Biosphere Potsdam 📅 25 Jan 2026 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 400, ƒ4.5, -0.7 ev, 1/640s

Slither
A #poetry thread

i.

There was an orange snake
who climbed up a tree
to bask in the light
and hiss, “hey, look at me!”

He came from a sewer
to surface here, thither,
and rise to the sky
on his winding sly slither.

🧵👇🏼

#poem #poemaday #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #photography

Thank you!

iv.

Once shells give way, horizons part,
and rainbowed music sounds, takes wing,
new worlds will break the old apart —
the butterflies’ bright choir will sing.

✋🏼🧵

iii.

No wing yet free, no skies yet claimed,
just silent beats of songs unsung;
the world they were is buried, pained,
that lyres with new words may be strung.

🧵👇🏼

ii.

Each pupa’s case still holds its breath,
in blanket sewn with silk and time.
The caterpillar cheats its death
to form a brighter, stranger rhyme.

🧵👇🏼