Fall Leaves in a Creek
by Lionel E. Deimel
|
|
Leaves ride smooth water
To fate on stony rapids—
Trapped, passed, cast aside.
|
|
|
In mid-October, I watched leaves drift along a
creek as I waited for a light rail train. The surface of the creek was
very smooth, except where rapids resulted from rocks in mid-stream. On
these rocks, leaves were sometimes trapped. Some leaves, however, continued
past the rapids and down the creek. Still other leaves were shunted by the
rapids to the left or right shore. A few days later, I began to think of
composing a poem based on my observations. I wrote down words and
phrases, like “leaves drift down creek,” “colors,” “smooth water,” and
“rocks.” Then I wrote lines,
such as "leaves drift on smooth water." At some point, I thought
of writing a haiku, but there seemed to be potential for a
longer poem as well. In the end, I wrote two poems, the haiku above and another
poem, “Autumn Reverie,” which, being longer, can say a bit more.
Actually, I considered writing as many poems as I could, varying meter and
rhyme, but the two I did write were quite hard enough. Anyway, both poems
were finished 10/22/2003. |
   
|
