Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sonnet on the Unraveling of Summer...or is it Life?


Politely we take our seats, as it were

Upon the long side of the afternoon

To behold the unrav’ling of summer

Like gossamer threads from an azure spoon

Dulcet disarmer of green tree and lust

Stealing the murmur of warmth from the sun

Where rust-petaled dreams parade to the dust

And memories like wild, blue rivers run

Even the rhododendron must succumb

To terms of relinquishment and autumn

***

A stealthy Spartacus captures the land

The tallest oak tree is no more immune

To pleading its grandeur ‘neath his command

Than the starlight of pallid anemone

Soil is the equalizer of earth

Where nature and mankind will not sleep

Segregated by rank, status or worth

As winds and cent’ries the blood-stained sands sweep

The tears of the rich and poor man agree

That life and death wait beneath the same tree

***

Solidarity wanes ‘neath sober sky

Unable to maintain its green façade

The pious marigold prepares to die

The scornful weed reckons now with his god

While flaming hill, field, wooded dell and slope

Rise to meet death in scarlet crinoline

Autumn is not a ruthless calliope

Serenading the slumber of a queen

Nor is he a grand, flagrant new-comer

But simply a hand unrave’ling summer

2 comments:

  1. “That life and death wait beneath the same tree.” Another standout line for me. A hundred poems could be written around that one line.

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  2. ...thank-you Mike. First I had something like 'that joy and grief wait beneath...but suddenly, as I was proof-reading it the other thought leaped at me!

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