TWO OF LEONA'S AUTUMN POEMS

AUTUMN'S PARADOX

AUTUMN puts on a Paradox Performance:

She hurries to change scenes and costumes

making me dizzy with her diversity

as she passes briefly between summer

and winter's blustery polar breath.

AUTUMN quickly comes and goes

a transient season of diminishing sunlight

and shortened fugitive days

still she turns once more to bless me

with the ineffable glow of a splendid sunset

leaves fall from soon bare branches

yet such glory in their surrender of life

a part of nature dying all around

amidst a time of bountiful harvest.

AUTUMN's paradox inevitably brings

sadness for diminishing mortal years

yet deep gratitude toward seasons past

rue for course of life I might have changed

now decreed and appointed

I must let go of what I cannot alter

to embrace the joy of what's to come.

AUTUMN's paradox offers me time

to gather all my nostalgia

like creatures forage for their winter larder

I will store up my treasured memories

to savor on a frigid winter's night

around the warmth of the dying embers

of my friendly hearth

and rest content in God's best plan.

SEASONAL SPECTACULAR

AUTUMN is a wet, crunching bite

of a Shenandoah Valley orchard apple

a plump pumpkin time

a snuggle-under-covers season

a time for raking leaves

winding up the garden hose

pulling up dry plants

a porch furniture storing time

a moth-balled sweater

retrieved from the cedar closet

with last year's woolen gloves.

AUTUMN is a cushion

a subdued, leaf-fire-scented buffer

between the swelter of summer

and the wail of frigid winter:

my favorite interlude

this seasonal spectacular!

AUTUMN arrives with composure

and quiet earnestness

unlike the sudden burst of spring.

It signals flocks southward

elbowing harvesters

to hurry with their bounty tasks

before the latter rains.

AUTUMN causes football fever

in restless males: spectators and team.

It sets off ghostly squeals and costume madness

in the young for Halloween

while Thanksgiving menus and fall fashions

tantalize the female mind.

AUTUMN taps summer on the shoulder

nudges it out of the way

and displaces the sultry day

with crispy-cool jacket weather.

Welcome AUTUMN!

I eagerly trade

deep-breathing frosty morning walks

for sluggish dullness that stalks

humid hot July which I

only tolerate because

I anticipate AUTUMN.

The painted leaf, the falling leaf

evoke a tension in my emotions

between joy and grief:

regret for what I haven't done

at blaze of summer sun

and gratitude for living

to this moment of harvest

in relationships and nature.

The wardrobe of the seasons

would be incomplete and out-of-style

without the flashy scarf and golden cap

of AUTUMN and her smile!

P.S. Thanks, God, for not bargain shopping

but going first-class

when You thought up AUTUMN!