I don’t think I need to say much about this poem, except that leaf-time in Autumn has always been one of my favourite times of the year! Enjoy!

Leaf Lesson

Leaves fall and lie,

Swirling and swinging free from their branches,

Dead and yet alive in their mortality

As they bring to my nostrils their scent of vital decay.

How I long to lie down in them,

To press their brownness to my face,

To feel it rasp there as once I did,

As once I did when I was young.

Their dying recalls me to life.

Is this perhaps a lesson for living well?

It takes, after all, falling leaves to bring the spring

Spinning its new-green spirit into matter

And into my soul, it would seem.

Their shining glory must be shed

To bless with blossom the land where now they lie

Unknown and unremarked,

The once-bright leaves now browned and brittle,

But giving themselves as sacrifices on the alter

Of some future time to come.

So too the heart, whipped by winds of worry

Must show itself to be itself,

No longer green with growth

Or crimson with cries of rage

Against sorrow and great grief,

But shorn of all this,

It must lie naked to the chill,

Bruised and even broken for a time,

Till it is born anew in love

And in the new and dew-dappled dawn

Of some splendid spring day.

Thanks for listening to Wonder-woven, a poetry podcast from Reveries and Ramblings! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smfeir.substack.com