One day soon I'll be ready to stop talking about autumn, golden leaves, and the bottomless supply of beauty that I find in this time of year.
But today is not that day.
In "The Shape of Leaves" Arthur Sze captures a relationship with nature that is either a simple but complex web or a complicatedly simple interdependence, a symbiotic relationship that helps us define who we are. Whichever way we look at it, "way leads on to way" and nature's depths and riches inform our lives until, as Sze says in the final line, "I am living at the edge of a new leaf."
Enjoy this short but sublime piece:
The Shapes of Leaves
by Arthur Sze
Ginkgo, cottonwood, pin oak, sweet gum, tulip tree:
our emotions resemble leaves and alive
to their shapes we are nourished.
Have you felt the expanse and contours of grief
along the edges of a big Norway maple?
Have you winced at the orange flare
searing the curves of a curling dogwood?
....
(Read the whole poem here, at Poets.org.)
~~~~~~~~~~
The Poetry Friday round-up is being hosted today by Buffy Silverman.
(Photo credit: Marta Wave, Pexels)
9 comments:
"The Shape of Leaves" is gorgeous--from the pure anger of the aspen gold to the pleasure of the sugar maple veins. Thanks for sharing it. And you can never have too many autumn leaves, although my husband might disagree as he finds my many collected leaves tumbling out of books.
Autumn is my favorite season🤗🍁and as it is so fleeting, I think we should talk about it all the more!
"Alive to their shapes we are nourished." What a delightful turn of phrase! This is a new one for me, but considering how our emotions are the shape of leaves is such a creative way to see the beauty and detail of autumn.
Fascinating! I never would have associated anger with the brilliance of aspen leaves, but now that the idea has been planted in my mind, are they quaking with fury? My favorites are the gigantic sycamore leaves I measure to be the same size as my face as I breathe in their sun-fueled incense.
Karen, This is a very interesting poem on leaves. There is so much in it that one can connect to - for me that is the color attached to emotions and the sandhill cranes that we occasionally see in Wisconsin. Thank you for sharing such an evocative piece. I love fall, too!
Buffy, I love the idea of all the hidden treasures you've left behind in books. Unexpected leaf joy among the leaves of a book! :)
Penelope, permission received. I'll not shut up about it, lol.
Tanita, I love the surprise and creativity of this poem, too.
Mary Lee, I'm also finding myself wondering about how each leaf is feeling. :) Your sycamore leaves sound glorious.
Carol, it's fascinating to think about color as it's attached to emotion. So many connections!
The colors leap out at me -- the aspen gold and white whooping crane. Yellow ginkgo leaves are my favorite in the fall. What about you?
Laura, gingko leaves are gorgeous. I'm always drawn to red maples though I never (even though I'm such a melancholic) thought of the colors as contours of grief. I loved seeing things through his eyes and thought process.
I love "And I have traveled along the contours
of leaves that have no name. Here
where the air is wet and the light is cool,
I feel what others are thinking and do not speak"
*sigh*
I just picked up a honey locust seed pod while I was dog walking. So hard to resist!
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