Today’s Poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub is to write an Autumn poem that includes colors or leaves. Since today couldn’t be less Autumnal here in Western Washington, my poem is about enjoying the moments before Autumn inevitably arrives.
Staying Autumn
Emerald-aqua hummingbirds pause by the wine-leaved plum tree.
They frolic as if they can dart past autumn and winter into spring.
This day isn’t autumn.
One of the most golden days of summer, clinging. Screaming,
“Don’t waste a second. Your time is the most valuable
weapon you possess, and you can’t save it up, or hide it away.
Though you may feel it warp and bend, you can’t slow it down.”
I want to take each tiny wing beat frame by frame.
Think how much time that could add to this day.
What was but a whir, a blip, would curl the air.
Each tiny feather shimmering its power.
I could jump in the lake a hundred more times
dry off, get hot, and do it again. I could fill
my camera’s memory, download it, and repeat
to exhaustion while those tiny birds
contemplate the last plum.
Silly Summer yelling at me in my reverie
of slow flaps of hummingbird wings.
Why come back for only one day, leaving
tomorrow with a storm front on the way?
Would slo-mo only last as long as I observed it,
or cease like an unheard tree falling in the forest
when I plunge my head under the water’s surface?
And would I arrive refreshed a hundred days older
gasping for oxygen, breaking the blue barrier
between under and above?
OctPoWriMo
Poets, I hope you’ll join me for October Poetry Writing Month this year. Last year, since it looked like this fun fall poetry challenge wasn’t going to happen, I took it on, and came up with daily prompts exploring fear.
This year, my main focus has been poetry. I’ve completed the eight-week self-guided poetry MFA section by Rita Gabis in The Portable MFA in Creative Writing, twice. I’ve joined online generative writing groups and critique groups, and read at my local poetry open mic. I’ve learned so much and can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with you.
This year we’ll be exploring the five universal fears: ego death; separation; loss of autonomy; mutilation; extinction; and the many fears they entail; with the tools of poetry from letters and sounds to rhetorical devices through example poems, and online resources, along with information from some of the great craft books I’ve been reading and collecting.
By the end of the month you should have a well-stocked tool-kit that you can continue to use in years to come. Even if you can’t commit to writing a poem every day in October, I hope you’ll stop by whenever you can to enjoy the poems that people are writing and give some encouragement.
Please tell your readers about OctPoWriMo and send them my way, so as many poets as want to can enjoy an October full of poetry, prompts, and creativity.
Experience Writing 
Thank you so much for continuing with OctPoWriMo. I will be participating as much as I can.
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Wonderful. I’m so glad you’ll be joining me again this year.
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That opening line set the tone of the poem beautifully. Love how the hummingbird flits throughout this poem savouring the last of summer and waiting for spring. Lovely, Maria.
For years I participated in OctPoWriMo and then suddenly Morgan stopped sharing prompts. I am not promising but I will surely try.
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Swoon-worthy! I love this part; “I could fill my camera’s memory, download it, and repeat to exhaustion while those tiny birds contemplate the last plum.” 💖💖
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So glad you liked it. I hope you have a pillowy- soft swooning place. 😊
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a wonderful cusp pome – I like the varied stanzas like sporadic sunshine and so imaginative the way you used time passing in the flaps of the hummingbird contemplating a plum
p.s. interesting topics for OctPoWriMo – I may join but can only do some of the time
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That is, for me, exactly what autumn in—the golden days of high summer without the great heat and breathlessness.
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How can there be autumn without the fierce harvest at summer heights? What is there to fall from? Love how you hold that summer love aloft into all the failing and falling of the next season — the mood of what we call “Indian summer” in the US, a lie but a fiercely dancing one.
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I would love to have a longer autumn…
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Your poem resonated with me, Maria; autumn is far too short and then winter hits us hard. I love these lines especially:
‘I want to take each tiny wing beat frame by frame.
Think how much time that could add to this day.
What was but a whir, a blip, would curl the air.
Each tiny feather shimmering its power.’
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So glad you connected with my poem.
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My pleasure, Maria.
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If only autumn would stay. I thought the hummingbird metaphor was great, so busy and in such a rush. If only we cold all slow and appreciate what we have more.
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Thank you. Glad you liked it.
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Great poem.
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Thank you.
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