Embracing Fall with the Academy of American Poets

"...the season begins moving 

Around us even as its colorful weather moves us, ..."

-Edward Hirsch

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting Poetry Friday this week. Bookspeak! is one of my favorite books, and I'm looking forward to exploring her new poetry collection for teachers, What's Inside? Poems to Explore the Park. Head over to Laura's blog for this week's round-up of poetry love.

My thoughts turned to fall, my favorite season, with its official arrival on Monday.  This week's newsletter from the Academy of American Poets included a selection of fall poems. I glanced down the list to discover an old favorite, "After Apple Picking", by Robert Frost. Even though I've never picked apples, I've always loved these lines from the poem:

"...And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in..."

I continued to glance at the featured list of poems and discovered "Fall" by Edward Hirsch who taught at the University of Houston and lived on our block more than 25 years ago.  His lines capture the arrival of autumn beautifully:

                                                                        "... It
Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet,
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us,
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets. ..."

I captured this leaf-carpeted pathway Saturday.

Picture at the same spot (six days later). 

You can read more autumn poems and access two additional pages of fall poems from The Academy of American Poets by clicking next at the bottom of the page.  If you're looking for a poem to suit a particular occasion or theme, use this link to access thousands of poems in a variety of ways.  The most popular links for the Academy of American Poets site are listed at the bottom of the page.