Poem: Autumn Caught Him Quite Off Guard

Autumn Caught Him Quite Off Guard

 

Autumn caught him quite off guard

Tumbling bright leaves to the ground

When he hadn’t harvested the last grapes

So he went for one last swim

In the eve of September.

 

Drops sparkled down his body

As he came up from the bay

Dripping with the desire of a boy

Soon frozen by winter’s rage

That in spring he had forgotten.

 

November 2021

About This Poem

Maybe not quite a weather poem, but a poem about seasons. In this case it is a parallel of the seasons of the year and the seasons of life. I am often still surprised that I'm already into my sixties, so autumn has caught me off guard. That being said, I still find fall to be one of the best times of year because you can still take advantage of elements of summer while enjoying new colors and cooler temperatures. Things seem to slow down. That's definitely true of life as well. So being caught off guard isn't necessarily a bad thing. The photograph is of a cottonwood tree in October on the Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico last fall.