Ephemera

“Fall Landscape” by Russ Potak

 

radiant palette

pigments of rain

drip from flames

brilliant fiery

heralds of change

unfolding itself

in tableaus of

texture and time

turning crisply

through colors

that quicken

the heartbeats

of seasons with

sentiments tithed

to the passerine

psalms reverent

music of arson

that titillates ears

as it burns down

the rustic divinities

shading the sins

come to pray in a

pastoral hushed

woodland church

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)

Just Once

Last month saw the fifth anniversary of this blog. After more than 4,000 posts, it seemed appropriate to re-post the first poem that I published here on January 8, 2013. Thanks dearly to everyone who has followed me on this extraordinary journey.

 

“Cool Breeze” by Karen Mathison Schmidt

 

Just Once

Trees well reckon the breeze
Arranging their leafy hands
To gather each soughing gust
Why can’t I grasp it, too?
It just slips through my fingers
Deflects off my palms
Though cupped to the task
No matter my motives
Regardless my deference
The freshening air is my friend
Stimulant for my senses
Sustenance for my spirits
When it moves, it stirs me
When it blows, it fills me
When it roars, it energizes me
But I need to hold the wind
To caress, not possess
To palpate and ponder
Its elegant secrets
I need to feel it yield
In my poor leafless hands
Just once, for brief moment,
Just once, not again
Not for long, not forever
I will let it go, I promise

 

 

From my book Range of Motion

Memento Mori

New Hampshire Foliage – Image from pinterest.com

 

oh what glorious endings

for lifetimes well-lived

a reward and a warning

of leaves in their turning

spectacular aide-mémoire

painted with earthfire palette

reminding gray bones

in bark creased with old age

that the best and the worst

and the all of green seasons

concede to intrinsic

autumnal propensities

give themselves over to

color and curl before

wind-tugged release

sends them fluttering down

come to rest upon loaming

where landscapes of memory

humbly stand wake

Autumn Leaves

“Falling Autumn Laves” by Martha Zausmer

 

rustles of laughter
caught upon graveyard gusts
delicate cadavers

 

 

(originally posted October 2013)

Leaves

 

“Gentle Breeze” by Eloise Schneider

 

little green hands

speaking gestures of summer

breezy eloquence

Fallen

 

“Maple Leaf on Water” by Judy Huang

 

fallen leaf upon water

curled edges an instinct

the drive to survive

still alive in the dying

become an untethered

frail vessel of hope

caught by currents

in swift flowing

downstream of dreams

fleet and free to imagine

which bank will reach out

take it unto itself

final resting place

made for the molder

of many small lives

come together again

in decay as they once

flew the breeze

high society

boldly displayed

by great limbs

of great trees

in the flaunt of one

great green high summer

North Country Art

New Hampshire Autumn
Photo by bluepoint
From lovethesepics.com

autumn sun
is the artist
her palette
bears brief
vibrant colors
her canvas
my vista of
fading green
forest that
yawns toward
its imminent
seasonal sleep

Semaphore

“Wind Tree”
Painting by Piero Manrique
From ugallery.com

leaves rippling on high
silver undersides flashing
forewarning the storm

Afterlife

 

“Fallen Leaves” by Frank Wilson

 

 

generations of leaves

come and go with the seasons

each life cycle leading from

bloom into flourish then

final surrender to coldening air

an autumnal departure

submission to will of the winds

finding rest in the dying

aware that the organic earth

where they finally settle will

wholly subsume their identities

legacies lacking a presence

in ligneous memory quickly

forgotten by mother-trees

nonetheless given an afterlife

vital enrichment that deepens

impersonal layers of nutrient soils

as leaves live and die and

enlist as unrecognized spirits

in matrix and medium crucial

to regeneration to constancy

so too is followed the passage

of each generation of men

from their bloom into flourish

then joining their souls to

invisible legions who nourish posterity

 

 

From my book Small Noise

 

Dishabille

“Woodland in Snow”
Inked Etching by A La Poupee
From etsy.com

deep winter woods
undressed of their finery
take stock of their wounds
confront their imperfections
far from prurient eyes