Sweet Sorrow – My Ode to Autumn

On By Swarn GillIn Prose and Poetry

After running with long healthy strides,
Summer sighs and rests its weary bones,
Catching its breath and closing its eyes,
It thinks back on the life it has made, smiling,
And begins a journey of deep reflection,
In that quite moment, autumn is born.

That green, so pervasive and full of life,
Begins to give way to a symphony of colors,
And a clear night ends in a cool morning
Bringing us all relief from summer heat.
No surface is excluded from thick dew,
Lying under a blanket of slumbering fog,
Snaking its way through the valley,
Slow to wake and start its day in the rising sun,
And as the noon time sun shines brightly,
The skin no longer hides from that blazing orb,
The humid haze of summer has left,
The sky, a perfect blue, brings clarity of mind,
A feeling of nostalgia for carefree days,
A joy for the closeness of friends and family,
Inner warmth protects against shorter days.

Gentle summer breezes are replaced by brisk winds,
And waning leaves are forced from their homes,
To settle anew on the hardening soil below,
And the year begins to feel the consequence,
Of getting lost in sweet remembrances.
It must also account for the passage of time,
And see that less lies ahead than lies behind,
A bountiful harvest is full of summer’s heat,
Animals fill their bellies with old sunlight,
Saying their goodbyes as life withers on the ground,
And as the morning air hints at winters bite,
Fur is thickened and homes are secured,
Each ray of warm sunshine becomes a great gift,
Moments of laughter are appreciated more,
And wisdom and gratitude replace youthful vigor.

And in the longer night hours, silence sets in.
A light frost adheres to stubborn leaves,
Who cling to their branches, refusing to face,
The inevitability that all life must meet its end,
And that all we can do is hope we lived well,
So a better world begins in winter’s wake.

25 thoughts on “Sweet Sorrow – My Ode to Autumn”

    1. I am sure it means different things to people…the feeling you describe I feel much more in the spring even though i live by the academic year too. Lol I guess I grew up with some pretty severe winters that I never felt much like renewal until the thaw. Lol

      Thank you so much for your compliment!

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      1. I loved my winter uniform being laid out in autumn. The new school timetable and prospect of the year ahead. It wasn’t weather related, but there again, the UK wasn’t Canada 😀 But that whole energetic drive still inspires me now at this time of year.

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    1. Thank you very much Professor. To get compliments on anything I write from such intelligent and excellent writers as yourself, Victoria and Roughseas is enough to keep me glowing for days. Of course I am radioactive. 🙂

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        1. LOL…I’ll leave the consequences of comparing them to moths in your hands. Although I do often picture Victoria fluttering. Only her eye lashes though as she sits on her porch in a southern belle outfit drinking libations. Perhaps a mint julip, or an iced tea. (in southern accent) “My my Professor…I can’t tell if it’s the heat or your presence, but I’m going to need more ice for my libation”. Lashes fluttering the whole time.

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  4. Well now that’s great! Far more detailed than mine Swarn, another facet, and I enjoyed it a lot. Here are my favourite parts –

    ‘It must also account for the passage of time,
    And see that less lies ahead than lies behind,’

    ‘And in the longer night hours, silence sets in.
    A light frost adheres to stubborn leaves,
    Who cling to their branches, refusing to face,
    The inevitability that all life must meet its end,
    And that all we can do is hope we lived well,
    So a better world begins in winter’s wake.’ – Excellent last verse sir.

    – Esme Cloud enjoying his autumnal outing very much indeed

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    1. Thank you Esme. I tried to take the poem through the beginning to the end of fall because I find even throughout the fall a different mood is felt. Both fall and spring represent seasons of great change and where you are the beginning looks much different than at the end, so I wanted to reflect that. I don’t if that makes my poem more detailed, just a different tack to describing it. Yours was more of a snapshot in time of a fall day, but one of your great strengths is to take shorter bits of time and make them unfold into a cornucopia of imagery and emotions.

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