October, you are no more the harbinger of Autumn
The green elm with the one great bough of gold
came in late August – the yellowing of drought
stealing the march on your glorious displays
and dooming those boughs to die with your first frost
for those burned leaves made no antifreeze
for the tree to suck back in before the leaves
their final purpose fulfilled
into the grass slip[ped] one by one…
And too came branches near breaking with berries
their colour near drowning out the last green leaves
turning the trees a brown when seen from afar
another false Autumnal hue and a feast too early
for the migrant birds which land in October
they will find the berries gone over, their bounty wasted
and now the land is draped in true October colours
we may be lulled into thinking the season too runs true
but like those birds in coming hunger mired
will Harebell and snowdrop, at their season due,
awake to the unseasonal “beast from the East”
or interminable drought or rain or heat?
October you are not the only month no longer
acting true to expectations – all is climate changed…
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
The italicised lines are taken from “October” by Edward Thomas, 1915.
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Dora in Poetics invites us to trip the October Light Fantastic and although that beautiful display has begun, it is not the whole story this year, and indeed, for coming years, and I find I cannot celebrate with unalloyed pleasure…
Bittersweet indeed, Andrew. The majesty of October and its bounty seems diminished to me as well this year stateside in the mid-Atlantic. The leaves browned a little too early, the green still remaining turning slowly to a duller hue than usual. When the colors come, will I “be lulled into thinking the season too runs true”? Your incorporation of Thomas’s lines amplified the echoes of loss, and every line sings with sorrow of bird and branch, now “all is climate changed.” Beautifully written.
Thank you Dora – I am of course enjoying the colours as they saturate our valley, but I can’t separate what I have seen and know about this year from the sight and just be lyrical…
Andrew, you have your finger on the pulse of your local ecosystem. Hoping its living things in the web are resilient enough to roll with the changes.
Very well-written poem. One of my favorites of yours.
Thank you so much Li, I note there is a real rise in activist poems, however subtle, in our circle and yet dealing with the big issues needn’t be at the expense of poetic quality…
You’re very welcome, Andrew, so have I, and I agree.