Looking at Autumn

I have been waiting and hoping for some of the deer parties of former summers, like this one. 

But, alas, it is a very quiet year, at least in the deer-party zone. 

Here is another amazing poem from Charles Wright, our current poet laureate.

CHINA TRACES

Nature contains no negatives.

                                            Nothing is lost there,

The word is. Except the word.

In spring there is autumn in my heart,

My spirit, outside of nature, like slow mist in the trees,

Looking for somewhere to dissipate.

I write out my charms and spells

Against the passage of light

                                         and gathering evil

Each morning. Each evening hands them back.

Out of the nothing, nothing comes.

                                                    The rain keeps falling,

As we expected, the bitter and boundaryless rain.

The grass leaves no footprints,

                                        the creek keeps on eating its one word.

In the night, the light assembles the stars

                                                           and tightens their sash.

Charles Wright,

from Bye-and-Bye; selected late poems, FSG, 2011, page 182.

The music in this poem makes my brain hum. Its detached melancholy, and the music of the phrasing are very moving to me. I also love the way it spreads across the page.