Been, No Be Ago
Been, No Be Ago
By Joshua Chalifour
October calling, carefully
lie upon a sky of whom
today will hear desire.
You said "die" to the leaves falling awhile
and the ground was cold to them.
You said "love" to poets probing your memory
still in the ground and
all this old wind of the dead blows.
We once grew from limbs
leaving bare, all that was said
soon sank and lay old.
Be by young trees, striving
and stand at grey rock, still.
You died beautifully in leaf,
and do with life, is how
leaves, dry and drifting
dead of sound—
a leaf curves in memory
of this Autumnal break.
Times curl how October
has told of lifting
a hand-basket season-of-decay.
Understand why most blood and sap
is water falling
from the thousand-years-snow
memory roots in need.
Has death, long in root,
been bearing the hills? And
has the pale, dead month
been that slow?
Autumnal
By F. R. Scott 1
1 F. R Scott, “Autumnal,” in Selected Poems (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1971).
October is the month of dead leaves falling
Beautifully to lie upon grey rock and ground.
Death curves most carefully from the sky in this season
To lay a memory at the roots of trees.
Leaves curl and die.
All has been said of them that need be said
By the old poets, and all has been said
Of you and me long years ago--how love
That once was young desire grew pale, and died,
And sank to slow decay, leaving bare limbs
In whom the blood was still. This has been told
A thousand times. Today we understand.
Why do you break a dry leaf in your hand?
Stand still awhile with me and hear
How from old hills the wind
Blows cold, bearing no sound
Of life striving in leaf,
Of root probing in ground,
Water calling, sap lifting.
October is dead and falling,
Soon snow will be drifting.