Late Fall Poems
12 haiku, tanka, and short poems from late fall
Meandering
Tiny field-bound pond nourishing bullrushes in a tall ring—three ducks flee into the sky and I watch them with apology.
Season of Easing
Afternoon sunset into colors all sombered to brown, hens roosted well into morning—it’s here, the November call to rest.
Intrusions
The TV shouting football, trucks, drugs, shies me to blankets, flannel.
Dinner Reflection
Bite of butternut— expecting creamy sweetness, finding store-bought tang.
The Calm Before
Ingredients and anticipation—house full Thanksgiving morning.
A Small Prayer
Thanksgiving matins— today, let me say thank you in the way of hands.
Lately I’ve begun experimenting with expressing slightly wordier ideas in two linked haiku that respond to each other. There’s something that feels good, perhaps even right, about this method in that it harkens back to the origins of haiku, which arose out of renga sessions in which multiple poets would compose short poems in response to one another. Below you’ll find a tanka followed by two linked haiku expressing the same idea.
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A Dichotomy
Through bare branches, light pours into the open yard illuminating a broad swathe of snow—inside I am crammed with lists and tasks. - Through bare branches, light pours in, illuminating a list crammed with tasks. Morning full of chores— outside, the open yard stretches, a broad swathe of snow.
Post-Holiday
Scattered silverware, crusted pans and pots, crumpled tablecloth and thoughts.
Searching
Old Christmas tree farm— we trudge its snowy stub field cutting down nothing.
Early Arrival
Chilly window pane, little dog and I wonder— winter already?
Shifting Priorities
Rising in darkness, present and awake for all light given this day.
Houseplant Blessing
Grow their ordinary roots delicate and downy as new feathers, those warm, wet and hidden life threads—bestow the commonplace ecstasy—new leaf uncurling out of the dark, unremarkable dirt.