"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Fall of Mother Nature

Assignment: describe something mundane in a beautiful way in a poem.


The Fall of Mother Nature

Mother Nature is swaying in the breeze, her branches strong.

Her life full and alive she sings with flowers and dances with the bees,

But her mind is boorish to the oncoming threat of November.

The startling entrance of Fall is like fire to her leaves,

New electricity attacks her arm’s protectors; prepared with strong green shields.

Yellow, orange, then deep red bleed into a burnt, crackled brown and black ash.

As her melodic hum of green vanishes, a starling yellow spark leaps,

Ablazed chaos now runs on her twisted, knotted, and wise branch-arms.

Eruptions of heat and confusion Mother Nature is seen screaming,

Raptured coldly, her green peace is painfully and hollowly attacked.

Her first shiver yesterday revealed her weakness,

Her shade flees, no longer able to stand the icy-sharp stabbings of winter.

Her annual sigh of defeat inevitably followed, thus beginning her hibernation,

Her tired arms creak and break, letting down their burnt sheaths,

Slowly spiraling down, down, down to the hungry ground.

Closing down to mourn Mother Nature is unclothed and shamed.

Her once green body now dried, bare, and cracked.

Withering winter brings blue death and ice to her brown skin.

Naked she shivers and freezes for three months to come.

But Spring will bring her a new strength and humility.

Mother Nature’s momentary fall will only chill, not kill.

No comments:

Post a Comment