AUTUMN NITE
by Jack Kerouac
Cloudy autumn nite
— cold water drips
in the sink.
ILLUSTRATION: “Vintage Faucet” by Anahi DeCanio. Prints available at fineartamerica.com.
Archives for posts with tag: autumn poetry
WALKING HAIKU
by Jack Kerouac
Walking down road with Allen —
Walking down the road in Autumn.
“Walking Haiku” appears on page 668 in Jack Kerouac Collected Poems, a 700+-page collection of Kerouac’s poetry published by The Library of America in 2012, available at Amazon.com.
GRAPHIC: “Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg in Autumn” by Silver Birch Press
AUTUMN GRASSES
by Margaret Gibson
In fields of bush clover and hay-scent grass
the autumn moon takes refuge
The cricket’s song is gold
Zeshin’s loneliness taught him this
Who is coming?
What will come to pass, and pass?
Neither bruise nor sweetness nor cool air
not-knowing
knows the way
And the moon?
Who among us does not wander, and flare
and bow to the ground?
Who does not savor, and stand open
if only in secret
taking heart in the ripening of the moon?
(Shibata Zeshin, Autumn Grasses, two-panel screen)
ILLUSTRATION: “Autumn Grasses in Moonlight” (ink, lacquer, and silver leaf on paper) by Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891).
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975.
WAITING HAIKU
by Jack Kerouac
Waiting for the leaves
to fall —
There goes one!
AUTUMN WIND
by Jack Kerouac
Bird bath thrashing
by itself —
Autumn wind.
AUTUMN HAIKU
by Jack Kerouac
Cool sunny autumn day,
I’ll mow the lawn
one last time
I Tell You It Is October! (Excerpt)
by Jack Kerouac
There’s something olden and golden and lost
In the strange ancestral light,
There’s something tender and loving and sad
In October’s copper might.
End of something, old, old, old…
Always missing, sad, sad, sad…
Saying something…love, love, love…
Akh! I tell you it is October,
And I defy you now and always
To deny there is not love
Staring foolishly at skies
Whose beauty but God defies.
For in October’s ancient glow
A little after dusk
Love strides through the meadow
Dropping her burnished husk…
***
“I Tell You It Is October” appears in Jack Kerouac Collected Poems, a 700+-page collection of Kerouac’s poetry published by The Library of America in 2012, available at Amazon.com.
