Friday, October 9, 2009

Poetry Friday: October Poems

Tricia challenged us to write poems about October for her Poetry Stretch this week. I wrote a new acrostic for the stretch. I think it still needs to be tweaked a little—or a lot. I’m also posting some other autumn/October poems that I’ve posted previously at Wild Rose Reader.

Orange moon, disk of burnished copper, gleams in the sky, prowling
Cats step gingerly through fallen leaves crisped by the cold,
Toothy pumpkins smile tremulously in the dark, a flock
Of geese honks farewell to trick-or-treaters toting sacks of sweets. Woe
Betide those out at the witching hour when All Hallows’
Eve swarms with ghosts who rise from their graves and
Return to spirit away unsuspecting souls before the month creaks closed like Dracula’s coffin.


Inspired by Joyce Sidman’s book Red Sings from Treetops, I wrote the Orange poem below for Color Poems, a post in which I encouraged my blog readers to write their own color poems.

The Orange of October
shines in the face
of a harvest moon,
grows plump and round in pumpkin patches,
flickers in the angled eyes of jack o’ lanterns…
and their crooked copper grins.
The Orange of October
flames in oak leaves and asters,
smells like cinnamon and nutmeg,
tastes like sweet potato pie.

Autumn Fire is from my unpublished collection of memoir poems entitled A Home for the Seasons.
AUTUMN FIRE

Two tall maple trees grow
in front of my grandparents’ house.
In late Octoberthey shed their golden crowns.
When the fallen leaves
curl up like little brown bear cubs,
we rake them into a pile
at the side of the street.
As dusk arrives
Dzidzi sets our harvest afire
with a single match.
We sit on wooden crates
at the sidewalk’s edge,
watch the brittle leaves
blossom into golden flames,
smell autumn’s pungent breath.
From the pyre summer rises,
a small gray ghost,
and drifts away
into the darkening sky.


Mad magician of
Autumn
Painting
Leaves
Every color of the rainbow


AUTUMN CELEBRATION
In October, colored leaves
Fall from oak and maple trees…
Bright confetti shaken down
From their boughs. All over town
Trees are celebrating fall,
Decorating every wall,
Sidewalk, yard, and flowerbed
With pumpkin-orange, gold, and red.
We stand out in the falling leaves
And catch confetti on our sleeves,
In our hands and in our hair.
We party till the trees are bare.


At Blue Rose Girls, I have Robert Frost’s poem After Apple Picking.

Anastasia Suen Has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Picture Book of the Day.




6 comments:

Kelly Polark said...

I love, love, love your original poems about Autumn!!! You captured the feel and look of fall so well!

Anonymous said...

I love the Orange poem, the link with all of those different shades of orange--so perfect for October! Thanks for these. enjoyed reading them!

Anonymous said...

These are simply lovely, Elaine. My favorite is the second from the last for these lines,

In late October they shed their golden crowns.
When the fallen leaves
curl up like little brown bear cubs,

So very descriptive. Wow!

Mary Lee said...

Your poems have put me in a fall mood!

laurasalas said...

Elaine, these are gorgeous, as always!

I esp love this:

The Orange of October flames in oak leaves and asters, smells like cinnamon and nutmeg, tastes like sweet potato pie.

And Autumn Celebration sounds like it belongs in any great picture book poetry collection on bookstore shelves right now. It's just spot on.

Henry Lawson Poems said...

You really have captures the season well, very visual poetry.