Friday, September 16, 2016

POETRY FRIDAY: A Little Autumn Poetry




The weather can change fast in September in New England where I live. One day it may be hot and humid with the temperature rising into the mid to high eighties. The next day, the temperature can dip into the low sixties...or fifties.

I love this time of year in New England—especially as summer gives way to autumn and the leaves begin to change color…and the days are drier and cooler.

Yesterday, I was reading through some of my old poetry files that I hadn’t looked at in a long time. That’s when I found the following “tidbit” of a poem titled September. I have no memory of ever having written it. I thought I’d post it today.

SEPTEMBER

Summer sighs
as it grows old.
The brassy sun
is not so bold.
Nights start to entertain
the cold.


Here is an autumn list poem that I wrote years ago:

AUTUMN

Crickets sighing
Birds goodbying
Pumpkins growing plump and round

Apple picking
Football kicking
Chestnuts thudding on the ground

Bright leaves falling
Wild geese calling
Honeybees huddling in their hive

Trick-or-treating
Turkey eating
Winter’s waiting to arrive

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Here is an excellent book of autumn poems written by Douglas Florian, which I am happy to say, is still in print:

 AUTUMNBLINGS
poems and paintings by Douglas Florian
Greenwillow Books, 2003

Autumnblings is the third in Douglas Florian’s series of seasonal poetry collections. The twenty-nine poems in this book touch on a variety of autumnal topics: apple picking, Indian summer, pumpkins, falling leaves, the first frost, the migration of geese, and Thanksgiving. Readers will find a plethora of short, light-hearted poems that speak about animals and the changes in nature that take place during this season.

As in Winter Eyes, Summersaults, Handsprings and Florian’s collections of animal poems, including Insectlopedia, Beast Feast, Mammalabilia, and In the Swim, there’s also plenty of clever wordplay in Autumnblings to delight old and young readers alike. The book contains poems with the following titles: HI-BEAR-NATION, AWE-TUMN, and SYMMETREE (Autumn is the only season/The leaves all leave./Call it tree-son.) In his poem BRRRRRRR!, Florian writes about Octobrrrrr’s cold, Novembrrrrr’s chill, and Decembrrrrr’s freeze. In TREE-TICE, Florian speaks of the number of leaves falling from trees--one leaf…then two…then three…and so on. It’s, according to the author, A tree-tice on/Arithmetics.

Autumnblings includes a few shape poems and several list poems with the following titles: What I Love about Autumn, What I Hate about Autumn, The Wind, Birds of Autumn, The Owls, The Colors of Autumn, What to Do with Autumn Leaves, Thanksgiving, and Autumnescent.

The collection concludes with NAUGHTUM, a poem that relates how The trees are bare./The birds have flown…./The leaves fall down/And then get burned,/As autumn slowly gets winturned.

Florian’s illustrations done in watercolor and colored pencils add just the right touch of color and humor to this collection that is a “must have” for elementary classroom library collections.

**********


Michelle has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Today’s Little Ditty.

7 comments:

Doraine said...

Nice job on your poems. September is my favorite. Douglas Florian's creativity with words is always startlingly perfect. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I always, always enjoy your poems.

jama said...

So nice to see your autumn poems and be reminded of Douglas's wonderful book. My favorite season!!

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

As I take my tour of the roundup, I see that quite a few folks are ready for autumn! Douglas's work is always smile-making and your poems today hit just the right spot, as well. Happy Poetry Friday!

Whispers from the Ridge said...

Oh, what beautiful autumn poems! Thank you for plucking them from the archives to share with us today!

Jane @ www.raincitylibrarian.ca said...

I have always dreamed of autumn, of the kind of autumn that you see in movies, I guess a New England autumn! Here autumn is usually grey, wet, drizzly and awful, but I never stop dreaming of that picture perfect autumn! :)

Brenda at FriendlyFairyTales said...

Wonderful poetry on my favorite season. I live in New England, too. I went round identifying trees with my son for a science project, and I noticed almost no fruit this year. The chestnuts trees are bare, except for a few dwarf prickle-balls and a chestnut the size of my thumb nail. No crabapples. Hardly any fruit at all. It's sad. I don't know what the birds and animals will do.