November
        For Dick Davis

My friend, it seems as if we know at last
We won't be here much longer.
Crossing the mountain of a hundred years
We've gained the shadow side. Against our faces
Boreas falls, the breath of nothingness.

The Chinese sages recommend reflection:
Characters like willows
Bend to the river where cold water flows
Unceasingly, changing its fluid mind
With every passing cloud or boat or leaf.

What's left behind? Only a few brief verses.
Come to visit soon, and drink a glass
Of wine and watch the woods behind my house
Decant the autumn moon
Overblown and gold on the horizon.

Tweet

Copyright © 2017 Emily Grosholz All rights reserved
from The Stars of Earth
Word Galaxy
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission