Welcome to Poetry Party No. 47!
I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Add your responses in the comments section. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one) and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post)
Please post your poem in the comments section below (feel free to include a link to your blog – it would be wonderful to have all of the full text of all the poems gathered together below).
Poetry Party Theme: Autumn Blessings
Autumn is my favorite season (followed closely by winter). I love the air getting crisper, I love the harvest of fall squashes, I love the transformation of the landscape into a witness to the beauty that can be found in surrender. Seven years ago my mother died suddenly in the month of October and my long walks among the autumn leaves offered me tremendous comfort in the depths of my grief. The seasons offer us great wisdom when we listen to their invitations and questions.
I invite you to write a poem about the gifts, graces, invitations, questions, and challenges of autumn. Let your words be a celebration and exploration.
81 Responses
Autumn Is Forever
(for Rachel)
who we are and what we shall be can never be written
in anything as impermanent as stone
sooner or later we outgrow our selves and learn
by leaving what the trees have always known
These poems are so amazing!!! I wish I could comment on each one, but don’t think I will be able to. But do know I read each one and cherish its imagery. Thank you everyone for this outpouring of beauty.
The air changes, one morning it smells like autumn
The light changes, illuminating the gathering harvest and fruiting beings
The energy changes, new beginnings and feelings of making ready for completion
It’s the end and the beginning
A special time for thankfulness and hope
And beauty
Wow, lots of poems. We’ve missed the invitations.
SEPTEMBER MOSQUITOS
(for Michael McClure)
Lighting up
the meat sensorium
bio-chemical
pulse & impulse
electric
flash & shudder
explosive touch
of tiny mosquito
on forehead
echoing down
miles of flesh
this seamless bag
of blood and bone
and all the rest
bzzzz
slap
damn!
….glad to see your post, Richard; ‘welcome home’
Autumn arrives in blazing colors
Announcing another harvest season
Time to reap the year’s abundance
Sown and planted with gratitude
Gathering our blessings into golden sheaves
With quiet prayers of thanksgiving
(will be posted tomorrow)
carpet of gold
beneath my feet
crunching & scattering
as I shuffle by
the air is crisp
the leaves have turned
fall is here
it makes me smile
One Common Loon sings an uncommon melody
regarding loneliness and love.
In the distance comes her lover’s reply;
eventually, the two meet, again, before light rises from the east.
Fog awakens upon the lake,
rising up like morning spirits in the still-dark dawn.
The drifting vapor enshrouds sunrise,
and yet ingests morning’s luminescence
like some mimicking chameleon of light.
Only now,
in this crisp new day,
is the fullest certainty of Autumn made manifest.
Arboreal gowns,
once green and fresh,
are now bright with gold and crimson hues.
Once-soft leaves now rattle in the wind;
a harmonious shoreline accompaniment
joins the songs of water-birds across the lake.
Carpets of forest perennials are being tucked-in
beneath cast-off cloaks of Maple, Birch, and Oak.
The forest is beginning to revel in the glory of its own nakedness,
only tentative in this autumnal time,
but eventually to dance fully and unabashed
amidst winter’s broad exposure.
This is a liminal moment;
a threshold between what was,
and is yet to be.
Melancholy emerges in these days of human-living,
just as naturally as morning fog
upon a lake too-warm for the surrounding air.
It is time to settle-in to our unsettled lives.
Accept change like tamaracks consent to the seasonal loss of their needles.
Let our own turning move us to Truth more-lasting than fair-weather.
Let Autumn be our guide.
Let Autumn prepare us for any darkness ahead.
Let Autumn teach us it is okay to let go.
Oh what a beautiful morning, reading these poems and passages!
I give thanks for the power of heart and soul and words.
Gratitude to Golden Dawn!
On this golden autumn dawn,
Awakening consciousness
Journeys,
Swirling through
my soul’s cycles of the seasons
Recent/past time, deeds
Fall
Brillantly character-colored
Covering the source,
Sustenance back to her
to nourish, protect her cycle
The conifers –
Like pillar principles
Stand unchanged.
Evergreen
Everpresent
to life’s purpose
Cool nights
Usher
Return travel,
Life force
to timeless root tanks
Grasses sing,
Fall flowers dance,
Life forms pilgimage home
Earth-drumming
to this year’s celebration
Joyous golden dawn!
Gratitude swells
This autumn day
for your bounty harvest
Autumn Leaves
________________
White shroud Covers
What leaves, leave behind
Naked
_____
? ??? ?????
Om Namah Shivaya