Tag: Poetry

More poetry for fall

The leaves, the leaves are gone except the oak,

FALLING LEAVES LIKE LOVERS 

The leaves, the leaves are gone except the oak,
Which cling to trees and rattle needlessly.
The others flame and fall for all to see.
They streak and sizzle, leaving only smoke.
But oak leaves hang as by some unseen yoke,
All browned and curled awaiting sympathy,
Or sap to course and lend vitality —
The leaves cannot perceive the sorry joke.
For spring will end the lie and they will drop,
To drift and rot and turn in time to dust.
As sure as buds will burst to make a crop
Of new, the old will flutter down — they must.
The falling leaves like lovers never stop.
It’s hardly gentle, but ’tis just, ’tis just.

Veteran’s Day Haiku

My great grandfather the Civil War veteran.Yankee ancestor,
Had Reb been a better shot
I wouldn’t be here.

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

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.

 

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.

Southern Wedding Haiku

Southern wedding, young men dancing

The matrons approved
When young men got up to dance,
They really approved.