fall. falling. fallen.
Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition
With the final remaining cardinals) and then
Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager
And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever
Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance,
A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud
Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything
Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s
Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment
Pulling out of the station according to schedule,
Another moment arriving on the next platform. It
Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet,
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us,
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall falling on us.
🍂
Fall by Edward Hirsch
In Fall I saw
a skyline of tree roofs
blowing off in
natural disasters
of Biblical proportions.
Every treehouse laid bare
roofs to be mended in April
when surplus roofing supplies arrive
from Mother Nature
painted bright shades of spring green
with all the colors of the rainbow
adorning the mended windows
as the birds move into their summer homes.
All in the right time
not before
I have known days of the extreme
Both hot and cold
Pain and joy
Full and empty
I have wsited for spring
I have been healed
like the trees
Now I wait for the time
when the lovebirds come build their nest
in my heart
🍁
AL
Nature Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
Word art found on facebook
life: acoustic & amplified 