Slip

It is early to be thinking
about autumn, I know,
but I just can’t help myself

when the wind speaks
so low from its heights
like it’s calling me calling me

to another land. Where
the trees look forward
to an endless leaning, bowing

towards dampening earth. A shift
from summer: I was born
there, but who says that measure

has any meaning at all.
If the soul has a home,
I imagine I will find mine

pendulous, ruby-tinged,
drifting leaf-like on
the ruffled back of that

first October wind.

Author's Note

2019

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Wow. Trying to get a 'handle' on this one. I try as hard as I can to stave off winter so wear 't' shirts all year, so to contemplate it as a welcome season is an anathema to moi. It does feel a little as if the protagonist prefers to be away, hidden from sight and winter provides them with that sanctuary. In anycase lovely freeverse that is food for thought.

[Eilis]

Hi, John. I think a lot of people feel like you do about the colder times of year. Where I live it's hot most of the time, so I look forward to the reprieve.

And your insightful comments certainly carry some truth. Thanks for reading and sharing!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i love the description in this piece, and the subject....i think autumn is the prettiest season...i remember October in Vermont and the beauty of the mountains with all the vividly colored maples...
also has been a very inspirational month to write...the cool crisp nights...
my soul feels home in October.
thanks for this piece, Eilis.
j.

[Eilis]

Kindred spirits...as Anne Shirley would say. I’ve not seen autumn in the north, but I hope to make it up that way some day.

Thanks for reading, and for your kind words, Jacob.

[Chris Shaw]

You anticipate the arrival of autumn early because that season speaks to you, creates an emotion within you. A calling you say. Autumn speaks to me too, but I never look forward to its arrival. Since I was an adolescent preparing to go back to school after the summer holidays, I have had a melancholy feeling about autumn. Even though it is a season of glorious colour, to me it is the end of summer. I am sure each season speaks to us in different ways. You took me on a journey back to my teenage years with this poem Eilis. Autumn makes me feel empty. Having said that it was good to read about what it means to others, especially a fellow poet. I think there must be a strong pull to the land of our birth. I have never experienced that, because I still live in the land where I was born.

Chris

[Eilis]

Thank you for your lovely comment, Chris. For some context, I live in the southern US where it’s miserable about six months of the year, pleasant for a bit (in autumn) and then cold and wet for winter. No snow, just depressing rain and gray. I suppose that’s why I look forward to the autumn. It’s funny because most people where I live feel the same way. But I understand why people across the pond might experience it differently. I’d probably dread it too if I lived in a milder climate.

I’m glad I decided to post this one. It’s opened my eyes to another side of people’s feelings on the subject.

Thanks for the depth of your comment and for sharing your experience.

All the best to you

[gram linski]

Autumn is a great time of year, to quote New Model Army *everything is beautiful because everything is dying,* but waiting to be reborn, wandering rusty ochre forests on the wave of that first October wind, mmmmm,

[Eilis]

Exactly. Thanks, Gram. A lovely vision you just shared there.

[gram linski]

it was you that shared the vision, Eilis, cheers

[Eilis]

But you offered something deeper. Cheers in return

[gram linski]

mutuallovinbighugsx

[Eilis]

right backatcha x

[Neville]

What’s to figure
I think that calling is an invite
I say let it happen..
Dont ya just love those trees tho
Near perfect in my eyes my friend
And now you got me aching for October...

[Eilis]

Thanks, Neville. I think I’d have an autumn world if it were up to me. I’m not the best at accepting things the way they are, haha.

Appreciate you reading and leaving your stamp.

[Neville]

My pleasure & then some.

N