Whatever comes to cool the air
And make the greenless leaves descend
And make the clouds seem strange up there
I welcome as a smiling friend
Who tucks the prairie in to sleep
And offers dreams for it to keep.
Linked to dVerse Poetics. Kim of Writing in North Norfolk host with the request to write about “one autumnal item”. My item is a photo, “Tree and Grass”, I took last autumn that represents for me the prairie in autumn.
The east side of Chicago would be Lake Michigan, the most beautiful side of Chicago which I prefer experiencing from a dry distance since I can’t swim and I have no intention to learn. Hopefully this makes the city itself happy knowing that when I walk along the lakefront I prefer her beautiful arms.
WATER WAVINESS
TEASES ME WITH SUMMER’S HEAT
WINTER’S CHILLY TOUCH
Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday. Bjorn hosts with the theme of “water”. Come join us writing haibun.
Photo: “Chicago from Navy Pier” by the author.
Announcement: Christopher Fielden has accepted my story, “Keeping His Cool”, as Story 62 in Chris’s Colossal Cliche Count Writing Challenge, a 150-word-max humorous flash fiction challenge with the goal of using as many cliches as one can cram into that restricted space and hopefully still writing a readable story.
One’s friends are precious, keep them close in heart,
Even though distance can get in the way,
It’s no excuse, these days, to be apart,
Community is needed like the day.
We like to think our choices have been smart.
We like to think there’s always time for play.
Our roads may turn and lead us somewhere new
But nowhere could I see forgetting you.
Text: This is a collaboration poem with Revived Writer. She selected ottava rima with rhyme pattern abababcc as the form. Her part is in bold. It is also part of Jilly’s Casting Bricks October Challenge.
Photo: “Curve in Bridge”. I took this at the Chicago Botanic Garden and I’m linking it to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “Looking Down” and with trablogger’s Mundane Monday.
What we presume is true we have no doubt.
It lies in shadows where it tends to be
Hidden from inspection, not found out.
Beliefs are more like leaves upon a tree.
Light shines and they are prettier to see.
What underlies them, on the other hand,
Stays hidden like the ground on which we stand.
Text: I am linking this to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I will be hosting and the form is Chaucerian stanza or rime royale: seven lines rhyming ababbcc. You are welcome to join us writing a poem in this form.
Photos: “Trees in the Harvest Moon’s Sun”, above, and “Deeper Autumn”, below, by the author.
Half a cabbage, shadowed low and deep,
Wrapped in plastic took its chance to grow,
Stretched its leaves, awoke from cabbage sleep
Near cheese forgotten also long ago.
We found it and then found a pot and so
A cabbage we once ate, one half of two,
Turned into one again with light and grew.
Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting and she asks us to look at what’s in our refrigerator. The poem is written in Chaucerian stanza (also called rime royal or rhyme royal). I will be using this form for Thursday’s Form for All post.
Photos: “Lucky Cabbage”, above, and “Half Cabbage in a Pot”, below, by the author.
When I look down I face the harvest moon
Although I see the earth in morning light.
The sun climbs on my back until it’s noon.
Dead trees lie on the ground, rebirth in sight.
The harvest moon, bright round, will shine tonight.
The woodland path unwinds me here and there
Then stops as cautious deer run off somewhere.
Text: The form of this poem is Chaucerian stanza or rime royal using iambic pentameter with rhyme pattern ababbcc. I plan to use this form on Thursday for the dVerse Form for All.
Photos: “Path Through Fallen Tree”, above, and “More or Less Facing the Harvest Moon”, below, by the author. Linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “Under the Harvest Moon” and trablogger’s Mundane Monday. I took all photos at Somme Woods Forest Preserve in Northbrook, Illinois, around the time of the harvest moon.
The first frost tells us that the trend will change. More will come until more doesn’t come anymore. It is corrective whether one learns a lesson from it or not, perhaps how to better stay warm. We do not circle back into last year’s frost. We spiral into this fresh, new one.
WARM THEN COOLER AIR
RIVERS NEED NOT OVERFLOW
TREES DROP DULL, DRY LEAVES
Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday. Victoria C. Slotto is hosting with the theme of first frost’s voice.
Photo: “Autumn Purple Yellow Flowers” by the author. I took this at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
I want the cosmic and mundane
To merge into a truer view,
To turn into a new terrain
That wakes when autumn’s light shines through.
Photos: “Autumn Sunset”, above, and “Early Autumn”, below, by the author and linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge and trablogger’s Mundane Monday.
Summer needs to get some rest.
Fall, it’s time to rise!
Have you any dreams to share
Through cool autumn skies?
Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I am hosting. The theme is sleep. There are no other constraints.
Photos: “RIP Summer ’17”, above that I am linking to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “signs”, and “Changing Maple Leaves”, below. I took both along the Chipilly Woods Trail.
It’s a funny kind of blue or green
That seems to match my oddly changing eyes.
Turquoise is a stone I recognize
More than that hidden self that stays unseen.
Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting with the theme of birthstones. Mine is turquoise.
Photo: “Birds and Table at the Park” by the author taken at Navy Pier in Chicago. The people left and the birds arrived for the crumbs.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 