Contemplative Haven

Oct 31 2009

Reluctant To Be Gone

Published by gabrielle at 11:57 pm under Just Being Me, Poetry, Simply Saturday, Time

Autumn Closing (Bliss Carman)

The show is over, and the leafy tent
All gold and crimson where the sunlight lingered
Through the slow afternoon, is coming down.
The bittersweet is scarlet on the bough
Reluctant to be gone, though frosts have strewn
Patins of glory on the forest trails,
While tatters of torn splendour go to feed
The smoky bonfires in the village street.
What singer pipes the closing autumn hush
With surest note of cheer in all the wild?
A dauntless minstrel of the changing year,
Chickadee of the wilderness! He knows
What sweetness gathers in the winter’s heart,
What saving oracles the North Wind sings.

5 responses so far

5 Responses to “Reluctant To Be Gone”

# Carolon 01 Nov 2009 at 9:26 am

The veritable inevitable rush of Autumn-blush– this, too, ends up in saints. With all the saints in our calendar and with all the feasts and memorials, “on earth as it is in Heaven” is already true, and every day is a holy day.
# gabrielleon 01 Nov 2009 at 8:52 pm

Let us be dauntless minstrels!!! Chickadee, dee, dee…
# Carolon 01 Nov 2009 at 10:52 pm

It sounds Bliss-ful.

Hmm..

“Dauntless Minstrels” ..

Can’t help thinkin’ that’s a great name for a book.
# kristinon 03 Nov 2009 at 9:52 am

what a lovely poem…couldn’t help but smile, as I read it. Is this a poet that you are familiar with?

Thanks for sharing, my friend….
can you believe that Fall is upon us, already?

(((hugs)))
# gabrielleon 04 Nov 2009 at 8:13 pm

Carol, yes, or a 60s folk-group, the Dauntless Blissful Minstrels!

Kristin, yes, Bliss Carman was a Canadian poet (1861-1929) we all studied in school back in my day, cousin of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, also a Cdn. poet. Well, fall here is pretty much over (not speaking calendar-wise), the good part, anyway, although it wasn’t a particularly glorious fall this year!