Poetry Friday (On Monday) - Autumn

Again - Poetry Friday on Monday

Autumn at last. September 23 marked the autumnal equinox - fun words to say! And words that give hope for a cooler temperature in south Mississippi!

Using my favorite reference book, the dictionary, I find that autumn means a period of maturity. Maturity means a state of ripeness, and ripeness means fully prepared to something. So . . . Those of us who can be described as mature in age are just now fully prepared to do something - maybe something great!

In honor of Autumn:

Gathering Leaves
by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons.
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace.
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed.
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth.
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?

One of my favorite uses of the word leaf is in the phrase turn over a new leaf -to start anew.

So

In my book . . . It is never to late to live. "And who's to say where the harvest shall stop?" Autumn can mean life joy!