Guest Post: “When Autumn’s Through,” by Karen Kelsay

Patricia — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:13 +0000

I cannot kick a mound of maple leaves
or see a pumpkin peeking from the vine
before the frost and not remember hills
where summer laid her green. A distant line

of poplars gleams like curtains made of coins;
it shakes at passing clouds. And everywhere
the magpie hops, I see another sign
of hawthorns beckoning the winter air

to breathe upon the fields. It once was mine,
that sweet transition only autumn knows.
The one that holds the oak limbs silently,
embracing every chilly breeze that blows.

It leads me into mottled shadows of
a deeper hue, where nothing seems so true
as winter’s birth. Sometimes, I catch a glimpse
of it beneath the vines, when autumn’s through.

Guest Post: “Hymn of Autumn,” by Karen Kelsay

Patricia — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:00:13 +0000

When the moon becomes a mellow pear
on twilight’s bough, and stars swirl up like maple leaves
before they’re swept into the dawn, I’ve often
walked this garden where the voice of whippoorwills

would carry remnant melodies across long, dusky
hours. At times I feel this eastern breeze has lifted
me, somehow, beyond the soft-lit sloping fields
and conifer lined hills. To lands where only goldenrod

has known me by my smile, and dampness soothes
the head of every yellow aster bloom. Tonight, before
the morning’s crest of ruby will extend through broken
clouds, I whisper prayers again to autumn:
take me there once more.

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“Hymn to Autumn” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It was published in Joyful!, an online Christian magazine, in October.

For Karen’s bio, go here. (Scroll down to end.)

Wilderness Interface Zone » Poems about autumn

Guest Post: “When Autumn’s Through,” by Karen Kelsay

Guest Post: “Hymn of Autumn,” by Karen Kelsay