One Clay Soldier

I was but fifteen when I left my friends For distant climes to fight our Country's foe, And now I'm eighty—back for the first time To see the home I left so long ago. - Unknown

Fall Moon

The crescent Moon desired to mount on high.
Its slanting course ne'er grew to orbéd sway.
A little while it peered above the Hill;
Then lost in cloudy Sunset passed away. - Du Fu

Purple Scarf

The wind, for a moment,
set me down with ballet grace.
I lit upon the cold steel spokes
striking out from the wheel
like the arms of great Kali. - Charles Jensen

One Last Cone

The autumn wind and the autumn rain,
But they nod and bloom the while,
And when the wind and the rain are past
Look out with a quiet smile, - Eliza Allen Starr

Fall Fruit

At the same time I stand exposed
Here on the bush of the globe,
A newly-naked berry of flesh
For the stars to probe. - D. H. Lawrence

Buddies

Liking, partly liking, hating,
Then another hydrant, grating,
Leash at taut, leash at dangle,
Tangle, sniff, untangle,
Dog around the block, sniff. - E.B. White

Hostas

They grow splendidly in almost complete shade and will form a mass of diverse and extraordinary leaves, some of them as big as large wet buttock prints.  - Diana Wells

The Stare

With eye upraised his master's look to scan,
The joy, the solace, and the aid of man:
The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend,
The only creature faithful to the end. - George Crabbe

Tranquil

Disheveled maples hang over the water;

Deep gold sunlight glistens on the shrunken stream.

Somnolent trout move through pillars of brown and gold.

The yellow maple leaves eddy above them,

The glittering leaves of the cottonwood,

The olive, velvety alder leaves,

The scarlet dogwood leaves,

Most poignant of all. - Kenneth Rexroth

Last Leaves of Autumn

The last leaf of Autumn,
Left dangling alone,
All her colorful mates
Have fallen and lost their tone. - Joseph T. Renaldi

Autumn Sunshine

 

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fall Roses

'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh. - Thomas Moore

Grass & Leaves

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;

Lengthen night and shorten day;

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

Fluttering from the autumn tree.- Emily Bronte

Yellow Gold

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. - William Shakespeare