The Gleaning of October
Gold rush
in late afternoon
a black crow announces
The sun tips its pool
on a chatter of trees
wading in flooded light
A fleet of leaves
like paper canoes
are whisked upstream
by whining wind
Whispered secrets
shushed away
in the hurry of days
growing shorter
~ Colleen Redman 11/1/07
Post note: For more poetic talk about the fall, visit Fragment From Floyd’s “A Sense of Fall.” The one sentence fall descriptions posted there inspired the writing of this poem.
November 2nd, 2007 11:11 am
Colleen, I am very glad to come here from Michele to be the first one to read this very vivid poem.
That picture is breathtaking.
I like the whole poem but especially liked the third stanza.
November 2nd, 2007 11:16 am
beautiful! thanks for sharing both the poem and the photo! so nice to visit here again. 😉
November 2nd, 2007 12:08 pm
I need to say this over and over this weekend. Love the flow and the thought of a conversation when did you think of it when you woke up??
November 2nd, 2007 12:55 pm
The poem was triggered by Fred at Fragments From Floyd asking “What does fall smell like?” http://www.fragmentsfromfloyd.com/2007/10/28/a-sense-of-fall/#comments Instead of smelling, I found myself listening. I’m going to put the link on the front page.
November 2nd, 2007 1:24 pm
Another wonderful poem Colleen. Do you know that you are singlehandedly renewing my interest in poetry? I have so many books of selected poems by some of the greatest poets through the ages, but they’ve been sitting there collecting dust. And your poems are inspiring me to get more familiar with poetry. It’s always intimidated me somehow. Don’t know why. Maybe it was the way they taught it to us in school, all about the technique and very little about the actual… poetry of it.
That being said, I posted several excerpts of my novel in progress on my other blog: fifty thousand words: the shameful blog of shlock o’ block prose. In the latest installment, I have Francesca reading Beaudelaire, who is one of her heroes. I just want to include one poem (or two, but that may or may not come from my own hand). I’m not expecting you to write something new of course! I’ll be more than happy to use something from your archives. Let me know what you think.
November 2nd, 2007 1:26 pm
p.s. I hope you don’t take offense at the blog name, I certainly am not referring to your beautiful poetry!
November 2nd, 2007 1:44 pm
Fall is a very poetry-inspiring season, don’t you think? You and Fred do it very well, thanks for the link.
November 2nd, 2007 4:25 pm
I can see how autumn would be so inspiring with all the spendid colors. Very nice poem Colleen.
November 2nd, 2007 8:36 pm
So often, poets jumble incompatible words together that fight for meaning when combined… but this verse…
The sun tips its pool
on a chatter of trees
wading in flooded light
Just lovely. A chatter of trees. Brilliant.
~S
November 2nd, 2007 8:40 pm
Michele sent me over, though I’ve visited already today, Beautiful poem. Hope it’s warmer on your side of the Parkway!
November 2nd, 2007 10:29 pm
Absolutely perfect!
November 2nd, 2007 10:43 pm
Really beautiful, Colleen. I love the line about paper canoes.
November 2nd, 2007 11:36 pm
I love fall too. I did a post on thursday about the season. It’s my favorite. Wonderful imagery.
November 2nd, 2007 11:39 pm
Wonderful piece Colleen. I was just thinking about you and Michele had the good sense to send me over to see you!
Hope all is well.
November 3rd, 2007 1:11 am
LOVELY Poem and Beautiful Beautiful Picture of the fantastic leaves….Such a wonder, this color that comes in the fall…!
November 3rd, 2007 7:15 am
Ohh, the first line grabs my attention! Very nice poem and such beautiful autumn images the words bring forth. 🙂
November 3rd, 2007 10:10 am
hummm, lovely. Those last two lines are particularly striking.
November 3rd, 2007 12:54 pm
One season, perfectly captured. Beautifully done, as always, Colleen.
November 4th, 2007 9:44 am
A lovely poem, Colleen. It certainly evoked a feeling and sense of autumn for me. I particularly liked the third part about the “fleet of leaves like paper canoes.” Wonderful!
November 5th, 2007 10:18 am
Perfect..I can feel and see thius.