Rain has taken down some of the festive foliage
as the trees here in Columbus
denude themselves for winter,
but mostly the neighborhoods and wooded lots burn
with yellows and oranges and burgundies
and russets and reds and browns
and even stubborn greens of mid-fall.
My boys have made a leaf mountain in the front yard
which I hesitate to haul away because they like playing in it --
the older boy, more vicariously at sixteen,
his nine-year old brother in for the full frolic of it.
The birches and the oak and the maples and
even the green pines explode like popcorn.
Today is gentle and warm
as the jet stream bends back
over Canada.
The geese have begun their migrations.
One flew over the house a few nights ago
and I watched its shadow pass over the frosted moon.
Leonard Cohen asked me to send his sincere regrets
that you could not make it here this fall.
Author notes
This is in reaction to the second picture prompt, autumn in Columbus, Ohio, and Leonard Cohen's wrap-up world concert here in Columbus last night.
A contest entry
- The Shadow Men by rrw.
1500 points, ended November 11, 16 entries
Silver trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
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Probably one of the most interesting takes on prompt # 2. At first I was thrown by it. But it seems to fit will with textures and the colors in the prompt. It also catches a bit of the "wind" filtering I did on the pic.
I do love warm "daily life" poems that really sees this world, this life we live, sees all those little things we take for granted... free time, the change in seasons, family and friends. A realistic sort of Rockwell painting. Glorious in its tribute to
modern life.
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Everybody knows that's a great Cohen song. As for the poem, it made me long for more specific references of Columbus.
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I love the moving focus here, the scenery morphing into family's reacting to it, a gentle look at passing time with seasons, and the universitality of the final couplet - truly music and poetry unite us all. Great imagery, almost wistful emotion, beautifully realised from observations.
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This is the kind of poem I love to read - a mixture of narrative, contemporary resonance and lyricism. The image of the goose's shadow passing across the "frosted" moon is perfect and the reference to Leonard Cohen unexpected.
Great piece,
maith thú,
Bill
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