Leaf By Leaf...

above lines from the poem To Autumn by John Keats

(one of my all-time favs:)

Along the boulevards, on hills

Like day-beacons, the trees

Beam bright with lights red-gold until

The stilling of the leas

As leaf by leaf each lamp is snuffed

And sheaf by sheaf earth's lintels doffed

The tempo of those songs we love

On summer's shaded shore

Wanes note by note into a trove

Of mauve and misted moor

As leaf by leaf the Maestro dims

The choristers of autumn's hymns 

How hardly we had held its hour

So, looking back it seems

Before the hello of its flow'r

Fell prey to moment-schemes

And leaf by leaf life's lissom bent

Mingled with pith of seasons spent

The unveiling of timber-frames

Is like a splurge of sorts

While wind-hooligans play their games

And nameless imps cavort

Soft, leaf by leaf their romp and play

Brushes the blooms of fall away

© Janet Martin