Monday, October 15, 2018

Autumn... (with a bit 'o Butter, Salt and Pepper)



This poem started with a bit o' squash,
stubble

 and silk...


The milkweed pod is plump, like mini-pillows stuffed with silk
The landscape, Nature’s Magnum Opus leaves the heart agape
The wind, a minstrel strumming brittle strings of corn-stalk ilk
The field, a street of stubble-gold a-wash with twilight’s cape

Autumn unfurls its wonder-world in leaf-shaped plunder, oh
Autumn undoes the awning of the woodland’s pantheon
Autumn unravels tree tops in a storm of auburn snow
Autumn is a buffet of marmalade and cinnamon

The hill is like a pedestal showcasing Frames of Fall
The dell is like a cradle where farewells of summer sleep
The brook bulges with babble of petal-flecked madrigal
The garden is an echo-land of laughter and bare feet

Autumn arranges pictures on earth’s sky-wide window-sill
Autumn exchanges green-leaf gilt for vermilion appeal
Autumn estranges us from sweat-drenched brow with sassy chill
Autumn eclipses expectation with its color-wheel

The pumpkin basks in glow of short-lived popularity
The apple is a super-star blushing ‘neath Jack Frost’s kiss
The spud is full of finest supper-possibility
The squash and rutabaga boast of roasted veggie-bliss

Autumn ushers in evenings of fireside and tea
Autumn returns the curlicue of smoke to chimney flues
Autumn restores the shoreline to the lone roar of the sea
Autumn lowers the bars of dusk with brusque and brooding blues

The morning wakes in soft plum tulle, rain-gray or silver frost
The afternoon is steeped in flavors no caldron can snare
The evening tumbles in and soon the darling day is lost
Beneath a big umbrella black as coal and light as air

Autumn scatters its notes across a tattered music sheet
Autumn shatters the coppice where a dirge-like silence falls
Autumn pit-pitter-patters on the roof like pixy feet
Autumn composes ballads for a ballroom without walls

The turkey finds no place to hide; its numbered days are spent
The porch is mum and jack-o-lantern pretty-as-can-be
The blue-jay bullies smaller prey, greedy and discontent
He dominates the bird-feeder without apology

Autumn graces the places and faces where footsteps slow
Autumn erases cricket-song; it tweaks tan cheeks to pink
Autumn throbs like a rhapsody written long, long ago
Where we are all still smitten by The Hand that spills the ink

The oven fills the kitchen with warm welcome without words
The cellar groans with goodness waiting to turn to ‘delish’
Ah, who could guess what homey happiness hides in plain gourds
A bit ‘o butter, salt and pepper make a five-star dish

Autumn rouses a raging appetite for love, it seems
Autumn authors a sorrow full of joy for summer’s splash
Autumn evokes a somber sort of tug of worn-out dreams
Autumn stokes musky embers with a rake that turns to ash


© Janet Martin

With a pic for almost every line it was hard to pic/pick only a few...




6 comments:

  1. Your photography is outdoing itself. Oh my, such lovely pics. And your poem, well, like you, it's hard to pick just one line and say it's a favourite. But I would pick the line and the matching photo for this: "The field, a street of stubble-gold a-wash with twilight’s cape".

    I love stubble fields. It's the true sign of autumn to a farm girl.

    Wishing you a beautiful week ahead...
    Brenda xox

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    1. oh Brenda, don't stubble fields just beg to be painted, written, photographed?! I will always be a farm-girl at heart and the line you chose was the first line I wrote in this poem, then I built around it. Originally I thought it might have two stanzas! lol! but each time I said 'there!' another bit of fall begged, 'remember me too!'
      thank-you for reading and I hope you are enjoying everything autumn too!

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  2. Ohh- i just made spaghetti squash on the weekend. I love seeing all the autumn veggies on display. So many great lines in this- awash with twilight’s cape, echo- land of laughter, earths sky-wide windowsill, notes across a tattered music sheet- just all of it!

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    1. I love spaghetti squash! Last night I served it with a meat-stuffing, putting the ground beef and veggie filling into it after it was baked and the 'spaghetti' loosened from the shell. I return the stuffed shells to the oven and baked a little longer. the verdict from the family was 'keep it separate after this';-)I liked it!
      SO much to love in October!

      Thank-you for reading!

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    2. Oh that sounds so yummy- going to try it!

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