Monday, October 12, 2009

Sam Hill and a Poem

First, the poem.  I wrote this a few years ago, but it's still one of my favorites.  And appropriate to the season.

Fall Into Winter

While the rain-bright moon lies
pillowed in a hematite sky, the dog
has been untangled one last time from the post-
harvest peach tree between the pines, our children, clean,
sleep upstairs and all is fresh.  I see now
why the Jews start their days in the evenings,
their years in the fall.

We have begun at last that sweet descent
through the aromatic pages of old
books and new, the sharpened pencils
of September, October's cat-black mystic glow,
through the spiking branches, the patient
kitchens of November.  This world turns
spare, closing in to the final present
of December spice and cloud,
all melting down
a vanilla taper
in the one golden room
the year has become.

Ok, now - What in the Sam Hill is this???  Can you guess?



9 comments:

  1. BEAUTIFUL POEM!! I do not know what the SAM HILL it is????

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  2. Lovely lines, especially the bit about the Jews starting their years in the fall and their days in the evenings. Makes sense to me at this time of the year. You've captured each separate feeling of the holidays ("cat-black mystic glow," and "patient kitchens") as well. I like it. I can't figure out what the Sam Hill that is either.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks! I adore the months from September to December, so it made me really happy to write a poem about it.

    I'm not telling yet - I want to see if anyone can guess.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Polly

    I enjoyed your poem and the sentiments within it even though the months and the seasons are all topsy turvey for me...

    Happy days

    ReplyDelete
  5. the moon escaping from a prison of red mud.

    the mothership approaching my rooftop.

    fortress of solitude.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i also love this poem, though 'adore' is a far cry from what i do to these months.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've never read this poem.
    but I love it.

    you should read it at the next poetry party

    ReplyDelete

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