Saturday, October 22, 2011

late october


the sun
is sleeping

in the leaves
so much
is being
held
so much is being prepared
for its return to the earth

i hold
their thin cold bodies
and feel something
of their reluctance
and their acceptance
in my own thin body

it's a dance
a slow moving dance
that embraces the moment
and holds it for evermore

4 comments:

erin said...

your photo is stunning. it hardly seems real, doesn't it?

do you think there is any reluctance at all with the leaves or is that us imposing our own? certainly they have much to teach us.

xo
erin

Cheryl Cato said...

Lovely photo of the leaves. I like what erin said above about the reluctance of the leaves. Here with the dead & dying trees I try to say a prayer for each. It is so sad to see them as they fall.
With leaves dying & falling they are replenishing the tree from which they fell. With these trees & pine needles they are hopefully replenishing the soil.

steven said...

erin thanks. it's such a brief moment in the life of this vine which has grown from a plant held in a man's hand to strecthing over one hundred feet - each foot of which is like this! i don't think leaves feel reluctance - they process food and then become food. much like my own body. my holding onto the terms of this place compels me to assume the same of all else. it's misguided but poetic! steven

steven said...

cheryl - i agree. i was talking about this cycle with my students the other day. i saw eyes light up when they realized the value of leaves falling..... steven