Autumn Colors

Yesterday was cold and wet
Stripping off early turning leaves
Leaving the new tweed of today’s fall
Standing bright on black branches
Measured in time
Yet finding it for the first time
Leaves celebrate life in each last moment
Through the music, the color and the dance
Emerging now in each leaf
To far out-shine their trees
Funny how the leaves
Were never noticed
In their summer work
When they were really needed
But now - free from work
And on their way back to earth
They shine with their own beauty
And sing with their own joy
Through each last day of fall

Autumn Rain

Rain carried by cool wind
Soaks right through
Reminding me winter is serious
Now, autumn calls us again
And in case we are not listening
Sends exhausting discomfort
Through a day you just can’t dress for
A shiver that leaves you empty
Cold and wet on the inside
Huddled and stiff on the outside
With no promise of any chance to ever return
Into the plenty of summer’s warmth
Or the fullness of a dry fall’s belly

Black crows flap wildly
And pull slowly over the top of red leaves
Loosening their grip
In the numbing cold and wet
That folds over the lower branches
Of young summer grown trees
Everything moves with exaggeration
Wet, uneven wind reminds me
That everything is changing
And I am uncomfortable to feel
Uncontrolled power inside this change

Fall colors flip awkward
This way and then that
Across wet ground
Against the crows flight
Tree shadows carelessly painted in colored leaves
Lie askew but even and flat beside their trees
Torn off and tossed by a damp gusty wind
That has done its very best
To draw a tree’s shadow using leaves
Just as the sun would have done
With its light
When fall was only a dream

I notice below the wind
Salmon quiet in their stream
Silent on their journey
Moving calm but steady upstream
Through the inevitable joy
Of fulfilling a destiny
That must have been imagined
As I stand here warmed
In colored autumn rain
No certain destiny in mind

Compassion

Look into the whale’s eye
Feel its rubbery body
Ripple in the cold water
See behind the dog’s eye
Or the pigs warm breath
And find its soul
Sometimes grown beyond your own
Greet it with love
Let its wisdom nourish you
Never let it frighten you
Or the shadows in your mind
May try to harm it
Broken by darkness

Dewdrops

So real those tiny neon sparks
Changing as I move my head
Red, yellow, blue then green
Dewdrops strung on a spider strand
Under the sun’s autumn smile
They stand out more for me
Than polished diamonds
That glint forever
These precious dewdrops
That evaporate back
Into the simple miracle
Of everything

Thanksgiving Cricket

I passed one cricket by the lake
Just one cricket calling out from the stillness
It seemed like the cricket was left to watch the lake
I noticed the sound of the cricket right away
And was drawn to it as everything else was still

All the other crickets had left
Or were silent and hidden
It was as if the cricket was left to watch the lake
And all life but the cricket had left the world
I wondered if the cricket knew the fear of feeling alone

It seemed to me that if the cricket
Could only know the miracle of its own existence
Then it would find the quiet lake again instantly
Just as I had found them both while walking by
Un-alone and un-afraid looking for neither

Morning River

Dimpled autumn steel
Cold as bright truth
In morning sun
Birds swim and catch fish
Just off the shore
On this proud river
Cormorants and grebes
Ducks and geese
All seem to enjoy
A last summer day
That leaves sand bars
Too bright to look at
While the sun sits
Low and bright
In the frozen sky
Behind clam siphons
And boxes and logs
That are ½ washed into
Wet and muddy river bars
Glistening bright
Along the river’s margin
In the morning sun