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	<title>Axel and Sophie Steenbergs Blog: News, Views and Chat about Spices, Tea, Recipes and the Environment &#187; leaves</title>
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		<title>Autumn Poems</title>
		<link>http://www.steenbergs.co.uk/blog/2009/11/autumn-poems/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:08:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Axel</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ethical living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Autumn]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Environment & science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ethical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[green blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[green way of life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leaves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poetry]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Perhaps Autumn is a time for poetry.  So here are a few poems that conjur up the period for me. 
I found the poem by Keats in an ancient copy of &#8220;The Golden Treasury&#8221; inscribed by my great aunt with the words &#8220;Elfie Steenberg July 1 1918&#8243;:
Ode To Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Perhaps Autumn is a time for poetry.  So here are a few poems that conjur up the period for me. </p>
<p>I found the poem by <a title="John Keats" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats">Keats</a> in an ancient copy of &#8220;The Golden Treasury&#8221; inscribed by my great aunt with the words &#8220;Elfie Steenberg July 1 1918&#8243;:</p>
<p><strong>Ode To Autumn</strong></p>
<p>Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!<br />
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;<br />
Conspiring with him how to load and bless<br />
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run:<br />
To bend with apples the moss&#8217;d cottage-trees,<br />
And fill all fruit fruit with ripeness to the core;<br />
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells<br />
With sweet kernel; to set budding more<br />
And still more, later flowers for the bees,<br />
Until they think warm days will never cease;<br />
For Summer has o&#8217;erbrimm&#8217;d their clammy cells.</p>
<p>Who hath not seen Thee oft amid thy store?<br />
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find<br />
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,<br />
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;<br />
Or on a half-reap&#8217;d furrow sound asleep,<br />
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook<br />
Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers;<br />
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep<br />
Steady thy laden head across a brook;<br />
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,<br />
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.</p>
<p>Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they?<br />
Think not of them, &#8211; thou hast thy music too,<br />
While barréd clouds bloom the soft-dying day<br />
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;<br />
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn<br />
Among the river-sallows, borne aloft<br />
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;<br />
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;<br />
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft<br />
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,<br />
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.</p>
<p>Or perhaps something more modern from <a title="Ted Hughes" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Hughes">Ted Hughes</a>&#8216; book of poems &#8220;Season Songs&#8221;:</p>
<p><strong>Leaves</strong></p>
<p>Who&#8217;s killed the leaves?<br />
Me, says the apple, I&#8217;ve killed them all.<br />
Fat as a bomb or a cannonball<br />
I&#8217;ve killed the leaves.</p>
<p>Who sees them drop?<br />
Me, says the pear, they will leave me all bare<br />
So all the people can point and stare.<br />
I see them drop.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll catch their blood?<br />
Me, me, me, says the marrow, the marrow.<br />
I&#8217;ll get so rotund that they&#8217;ll need a wheelbarrow.<br />
I&#8217;ll catch their blood.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll make their shroud?<br />
Me, says the swallow, there&#8217;s just time enough<br />
Before I must pack all my spools and be off.<br />
I&#8217;ll make their shroud.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll dig their grave?<br />
Me, says the river, with the power of the clouds<br />
A brown deep grave I&#8217;ll dig under my floods.<br />
I&#8217;ll dig their grave.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll be their parson?<br />
Me, says the Crow, for it is well-known<br />
I study the bible right down to the bone.<br />
I&#8217;ll be their parson.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll be chief mourner?<br />
Me, says the wind, I will cry through the grass<br />
The people will pale and go cold when I pass.<br />
I&#8217;ll be chief mourner.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll carry the coffin?<br />
Me, says the sunset, the whole world will weep<br />
To see me lower it into the deep.<br />
I&#8217;ll carry the coffin.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll sing a psalm?<br />
Me, says the tractor, with mu gear grinding glottle<br />
I&#8217;ll plough Up the stubble and sing through my throttle.<br />
I&#8217;ll sing the psalm.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;ll toll the bell?<br />
Me, says the robin, my song in October<br />
Will tell the still gardens the leaves are over.<br />
I&#8217;ll toll the bell.</p>
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