Saturday, October 29, 2011

FLYAWAY

Photo by S. Auberle

If my mother returned this autumn day
I would wrap her in my arms
rest my cheek on her soft white hair
share my food with her...
this creamy slice of Fontina
a golden pear, a little red wine
and we would laugh and eat and drink
until it was time for her to return
to where she belongs now.
She would fly away, gently
as the silk of this milkweed pod
and a crow, awaiting
the crumbs of our feast
would bid her a fond farewell...

another poem from my forthcoming book,
"Something After Burning"

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

THAT LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Northport Ferry Road--altered Photo/Painting by S. Auberle


ROADS


"...I've seen that road before.  It always leads me here." 
                                     -  The Beatles


In Oklahoma I traveled once
down a road with shadows of owls
and egrets settling softly in trees,
their white feathers
rose-tinted in evening light.

There were roads in Alaska,
Ireland, Scotland, Italy,
roads all over the world
that would break your heart
with their beauty

but the road in Ohio
where crows sing to you
and trees bend down to touch you--
that's the road that's never left me
though I left on it long ago.

That's the road that leads me
to the country of my bones.

~  Sharon Auberle
(from my forthcoming book, "Something After Burning"
to be released late November)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

ONCE IN AUTUMN

Photo by S. Auberle

for Sallie

I think of you, always, in autumn
that day in the park
when we knelt in the grass
beneath a gingko tree
gathering its delicate fans around us
then tossing them high, laughing
in the golden shower raining down...
we, of many years
we, who thought there'd be many more...
I forget--already you've been gone almost seven

I must love this world twice as much for you...

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

HER WEB

Photo by S. Auberle


"For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans.  The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door."
                                      ~  Rabindranath Tagore


This exquisite work of art hung this morning, just outside my front door...it's gone now...