these the last days of leaf fall, this autumnal hurrah
crimson, mustard, saffron, all of the motley browns
a few beeches remain full burnished, stuck over with gold, vivid against the clear blue sky beyond
sucked of moisture, skeletons of nowt but tannin and rasp
breeze stirred, one leaf detaches, it begins with a waggle, a saunter,
the swoop of leaf fandango,
a final bellyflop swoon to the ground
letting go? giving up! oh you leaf shirkers
the wind strengthens, a brittle leaf rattle (something of teeth chatter), a swirl, bask and laugh within this blizzard snow shaker
beneath foot, the leaf kerfuffle, layered, interleaved, humus settling to mud
the earth serpent, coils of body, she rears up, then dives deep beneath the ground,
sloughing off the colours, the beauty, of her myriad scales
a great sinuous wave flowing through the land, but also, passing through us
we are buoyed, immense, lifted up
then left, the promise of return, yet bereft in the still serenity of ourselves
……………….
chewed through a whole biro trying to write those words! i am an inveterate pen gnaw-er, especially when words don’t want to flow (stuckness mostly a winter thing)
fun to write similar words each turn around the sun, a return, spiraling through the year
it doesn’t have to be great, just a really enjoyable process, stodgily working things through
was trying for something a bit more ooh i don’t know manley hopkins or o’donohue this time
recently, when i’ve been waking at a blear 4:00 am, to get back to sleep i’ve been listening again to o’donohue (‘beauty: the invisible embrace’)
i love his irish voice, that slightly peculiar intonation, it flows beautifully with his words, to my pre dawn consciousness muddled mind, i’m not always sure what he’s saying
but its important, a sumptuous crescendo of lyricism