We see autumn As a blaze Of red leaves, falling leaf-shaped embers From the branch-lined sky, A blaze Of squirrels rushing, Geese hurrying, of motion, A blaze Of jack-o-lanterns. But around the jack-o-lanterns falls the night, Advancing slowly through the days, A black cat stalking the now-mouse-weak sun. Northern winds come Hand in hand with warm zephyrs Above the autumn’s thin skin of fire, Waltzing around each other; Summer to winter and back While below, Frost turns soil to stone, For hardy autumn-leaf mushrooms to stand brittle Like Medusa’s stare. Gabriel Wainio-Theberge,12Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Poetry-The-Seasons
There Was a Blizzard
Blizzard white snow twirling dancing like another kind of ballerina. I see a girl she is white— seeing something I can’t see— a white hawk circling Alice Provost Simmons, 10Barrington, Rhode Island
Early Spring
The ice and snow are almost melted, Winter’s biting cold has mellowed, Mountains brown and bare for so long, Show an almost imperceptible haze of green. The sky is the delicate shade of thrushes’ eggs Soon to be laid in a nest of mud and twigs. A mole furrows the earth’s brow with his tunneling, Cautious tongues of green make their way Through last autumn’s leaves into the balmy air. The first robin pecks at the newly softened ground, And drags an unwilling worm into the light. Ava Alexander, 11Dalton, Pennsylvania
