Thursday, September 08, 2011

Thursday Poem - 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
(from American Primitive)

5 comments:

the wild magnolia said...
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the wild magnolia said...

Mary Oliver is wonderful, taking us a journey with her words.

A river, a creek, frozen in time, a rush over a million dropped stones.

Thank you.

Mystic Meandering said...

Beautiful poem... I sense a sadness... "The NOW, that now is nowhere..." how profound.

May we all "flare out" into "the mystery" with such splendor as Fall!

Anonymous said...

So beautiful, I read it twice.

Diane Walker said...

Gorgeous image; thanks for sharing!