Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fall Song



Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - - -roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - - - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

--Mary Oliver

10 comments:

steven said...

exquisite! the leaves are as close to nuzzling and cuddling as leaves can get . . . .the sun wshing through the leaves -phew! mary says "flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing to stay"
i think that's some of the beauty of autumn - that knowing that it's marking the stage of the cycle before so much shuts down or hides away or retreats to a good place until the sun comes back full blast. steven

Reya Mellicker said...

I agree Steven. The sufi acupuncturist says that's what brings on the awe in fall, that longing to stay when staying is never possible.

Linda Sue said...

Brrrr- cold here now, no amount of poetry will make it warmer, or acceptable. Must adjust my adjust-o-meter, Get out the winter gear. Bleahhhh.

Cyndy said...

Those lovely photos are a wonderful frame for a beautiful fall poem.

Meri said...

Love the leaves against the brick. Love the heating tech that fixed my furnace on Friday. Hello cold nights!

Steve Reed said...

Hey Reya! Wonderful Mary Oliver, as usual. And wonderful leaves, too. :)

Pauline said...

That woman captures beauty with words the way you capture it with a camera. Wonderful post!

Reya Mellicker said...

Thanks Pauline. Mary Oliver can not write a bad poem, apparently.

Hi Steve!! (waving)

Glad the rest of you are warm and snug. We have a few weeks here in DC before it gets cold. Fall lingers here ... a perc of living in the south.

Merle Sneed said...

Wonderful post as always, Reya. You're the best.

Reya Mellicker said...

No, Merle, YOU are!