The sun is south
in the morning sky
as if it were leaving us
with colorless farewell;
the gold of autumn burned
to brilliant white.

With bare arms
and empty branches
the hunger of the earth
outlines the darkness
before descent,
and the long rest
of winter.

 

Before Descent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 Responses

  1. Ah, restful slumber! Have a wonderful holiday my poetic friend and thank you for the elegance of your expression! I always welcome it with wonder!

  2. Where I live, December sunsets provide daily color extravaganzas over the Atlantic. Recently the sun has been almost one-upped. About 3 hours after sunset, the moon dips to the very same point in the horizon, waves goodbye to Venus (its companion for the early dark within an arc of a few degrees) and slips its up-turned new-born sliver below a thin blanket of cloud, briefly engulfing them in reflected light. Then she goes chasing after her beloved …

  3. What a beautiful choreographed dance of images through words. How perfect a setting for acknowledging the rising and the passing of Nelson Mandela. In these last days of Autumn, may we plant new seeds of love into the earth in honor of the new birth of freedom he brought to all of humanity. He showed us what love can accomplish, now it is ours to give unconditionally. What joy there is in creating a new earth .. together.

  4. Thanks Don, the dormant season sits upon me like autumn leaves warm the earth, providing quiet cover for life churning below the surface. Always you capture the essence of life moving in rhythm, awakening something asleep in me.

  5. I am left here in a moment of sacredness after reading your poem and the beauty it evoked in the responses. Thank you so much…..all of you!

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