An Autumn Affair
We really didn’t have the time.
Then again we’ve been together
long enough to know time is no
commodity but a fire in which we
suffer loss and are purged.
So we left the children to themselves
and drove higher up the mountain,
higher than we live, up where the
aspens were already arrogant.
You took my hand and we walked
Preacher’s Hollow trail, you making
jokes about hollow preacher heads.
We laughed quiet so as not to douse
the falling embers on our shoulders.
I pocketed one of those leaves to press
in the Stegner novel we both love.
Maybe one day our children will open
that book and the leafy memory of
their parents’ autumn affair will fall
to the floor and they will understand
we really didn’t have the time.
“We laughed quiet so as not to douse
the falling embers on our shoulders.”
What a uniquely beautiful image … love the quiet tension in this poem.
Thank you, Teresa.
This is achingly beautiful..and so true, there is never enough time if you love another with all you are.
Thanks, Hazel. You’re so right, never enough time.
John, your poetry wakes my soul.
John, your poetry wakes my soul.
Autocorrect thinks it wakes my soil, which may also be true.
Methinks you’re on to something there, Vern. Thanks, man.
Would be curious to know which Stegner novel you love. Crossing to Safety? Just a guess, but I always think of it in the fall.
Michele, my wife and I love Crossing To Safety. I agree, it does have a fall feel. Thanks for your comment.
Beautiful.
Thank you, Annie.
Yes. . .yes. We really didn’t have the time, either, but we’re just finishing up 2 weeks of glorious leaf-peeping in New England. And almost all the trees there are arrogant this time of year.
I really like this one. We can run away in Time, even if it rejects us, even if it is unkind – and somehow, somehow we still return through with the astonishing gift of love found somewhere in the breeze. Or maybe time has nothing to do with it. I’m not sure if I know. Thank you for writing, John.
Way da go John!
You done good with this one and I understood every word and loved all of it.
I wish my wife and I could take a walk in the mountains this time of year. We’ll just have to be satisfied with a walk on the beautiful beach (Atlantic), about 3/4 of a mile from our home.
Lindsay