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Fall Song

November 09, 2006

ph_oct_redoak.jpg

Oak Leaves ~Canon 30d

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - - -roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - - - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

~ Mary Oliver


I can't get enough of her poetry. Image shot a couple weeks ago in my favorite wood in Northern Virginia. (yeah.. the leaves form a V.. perhaps for VICTORY!)

Posted by vincent at November 9, 2006 02:53 PM

Comments

I love the poem. Intend to use it at circle meeting the end of the month. Thanks so much for sharing.

Posted by: janet at November 10, 2006 11:41 AM

nobody can say it quite the way mary oliver does...i have her new book thirst on my xmas wish list...hope santa is good to me...

Posted by: la vie en rose at November 10, 2006 04:01 PM

a fallen heart,cracked but still alive...that is what I saw in those two leaves, side by side.

Posted by: tongue in cheek at November 10, 2006 05:10 PM