Autumn Song

Afternoon in late September

AUTUMN SONG

Afternoon in late September
Shows us signs we both can follow,
Shadows where there were no shadows
Days before, encroach on meadows,
Turning brittle brown and yellow.
Six o’clock’s a dying ember
Causing grown men to remember
Another fall’s disturbing echo.

When, unnoticed, fell the first leaves,
Yellow elm leave tired of sunshine?
Who suspected seeing such ease
When the first chill stunned the green vine?
Is embarrassment the reason
Sumac’s crimson hides its poison?
When was foliage last so supine?

Rainy night in mid-October
Brings the icy confirmation —
Twigs encased in shiny coffins
Clenched in cold that never softens.
Even daylight’s ministration
Alters no repose so sober
As the sleep of mid-October,
Sleep of spreading desolation

Love Letter Haiku

love letters

Musty old letters.
One loved more than the other.
It’s an old story.

Night Walk

I have walked now and then in rain.

EXPERIENCE

I have walked now and then in rain,
Walked until the road gave way to stones.
I have known a thing or two of pain.
 
I’ve returned home alone at night
To rooms that don’t speak back to me at all.
I have stayed up late without a light.
 
I have watched the half-moon disappear,
Watched until the frost benumbed my face.
I have seen the seasons of the year.
 
I have left warm, pleasant rooms for plain,
Left without a word explaining why.
I have known a thing or two of pain.

 

I Have Walked

I have watched the half moon disappear

Night Walk

I have walked now and then in rain,
Walked until the road gave to stones.
I have known a thing or two of pain.

I’ve returned home alone at night,
To rooms that don’t speak back to me at all.
I have stayed up late without a light.

I have watched the half-moon disappear,
Watched until the frost benumbed my face.
I have seen the seasons of the year.

I have left warm, pleasant rooms for plain,
Left without a word explaining why.
I have known a thing or two of pain.

(1980)

NOTES: Robert Frost said, “I have been one acquainted with the night.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “To seem the stranger lies my lot … ”

Ray Charles sang, “I live on lonely avenue.”

This poem 38-year-old history, but I took a walk the other night, and before the half moon disappeared behind a cloud, I got a shot. And it made me think of a less happy time.

 

Autumn Haiku

Autumn leaves

I’ve never been one,
For wallowing in the past,
But, the falling leaves …

Hometown Haiku

1960 Marshall High School Noctua Yearbook. Marshall, Missouri

We lost the big game,
But at least we’d never say,
That our lives peaked there.

Autumn Haiku

The chill that comes with evening

The fragrance of leaves.
The chill that comes with evening.
Old wounds ache again.