Fall

Dark    deep    the well                         of memory
Steep   stark    the wall                        of longing
Leaf     flutter  falter    fall

Still      still      the deepening  valley
Flame  flame   the nameless               lost
Harsh               the searing grammar               of absence

Glow   glow     the smoldering            forest
Gaze    gaze     the burning      mountains
Shadow                       shroud               burnished         hunchback hills

Kathy Nelson has recently moved to North Carolina from New Jersey, where she worked as a hospice chaplain. Her poems have appeared in US 1 Worksheets, Off the Coast, The Cortland Review, and other print and online journals. Her first chapbook has been accepted for publication by Main Street Rag.

About Fall—This poem signals a new, more abstract, direction in my work. As sometimes happens, I had been trying all day to write a poem. Giving up in frustration, I went to sit on my porch, where this poem presented itself.