- The Seasons Are Changing
Last night there was a cold, clear full moon a-risin’. No longer evident was the golden richness of autumn’s lunar orb. As I snapped the brilliant gleam over a bleak landscape, its reflection on stark trees seemed to signal a resting time for my little corner of the planet. - More Thoughts of Autumn
- Autumn
Here’s an excerpt from “The Autumn,” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861):
Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them —
The summer flowers depart —
Sit still — as all transform'd to stone,
Except your musing heart. - Blooms: The Last Rose of Summer
My friend, who lives a few miles south of me, has a lovely array of flowers in her garden. Her yellow rosebush is particularly prolific. Her beautiful variegated roses sometimes try to outdo their gorgeous yellow sisters. Personally, I think there is an unseen, secret flora competition among my friend’s blooms to determine who will be the last rose of summer once autumn has arrived with wind and shiver-inducing temperature drops. This year the winner is . . . both!
- Leisure Passes, Time Passes, Life PassesGavin Ewart (1916–1995) was a comic poet of England—lesser known in the United States. Born in London and educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, he grew up reading the classics and became a writer who penned inventive scenes and clever sonnets about family life, sex, (certain shops in Britain banned his more erotic verse) animals, and the indignities of old age. He wrote with a satirical edge and great insight.
- The Long and Short of It
I have been following an interesting poem online. It’s a poetic effort using the newest forms of electronic communication—texting and social networking—to form a poem known as “The Longest Poem in the World.” The brainchild of Romanian Web developer Andre Gheorghe, it’s a Web site creating a gigantic poem of “found” words.
- Dogs and Dancing Foxes
The barking was urgent—incessantly annoying. What could be happening at the bottom of my long dirt driveway to cause such a ruckus? The two 70-pound beasts, big dogs, romantically named Spencer and Kate, dared not cross the invisible fence boundary. They did, of course, challenge their buzzing collars (the warning they are too close) as skillfully as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers.
- Knock-Knock!
If stickiness (memorability) is the sign of a good poem, is it also the sign of a good joke?
I recently heard an adult tell a knock-knock joke that left everyone in the room trying desperately to hold back a silly grin. I was suddenly a little girl again, leaning against my mother and waiting for her reaction to this:
Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce who?
Lettuce in, it’s cold out here!
And I grinned despite myself.- Good Poems
[amazon cover 0142003441] I have been reading Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems. I keep returning to a poem by Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982), a much-married poet, essayist, and devotee of Asian poetry. Three of his poems are featured in Good Poems.
- Poetry Month
Do you know that April is National Poetry Month?
In 1996, the American Academy of Poets established National Poetry Month to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. The vision was to bring the art of poetry, and an awareness of poetry, poetry readings, and the creative works of living poets, into the spotlight. - The Long and Short of It
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