Autumn poems

Autumn is my favorite season of the year, with its crisp air and the changing colors of the leaves. It always stirs up a mix of emotions in my heart, a combination of hope, sorrow, and peace, in the midst of sacrificial love. Almost every year I try to capture the experience in a poem (usually only with partial success)... Here are some of the autumn poems I’ve written over the years.

2002

Dying Color

Yellow leaves, red leaves, orange leaves—
The trees are all ablaze—
Flashing beauty blinds the eyes
As they speak in subtle ways:

“Oh, men of earth, (foolish men!)
He who holds his life loses it,
But he who gives for others
Is born in life, if he chooses it!”

And it is through our death
That our true colors show,
But yet we shall live again
And through dying we will grow.


2003

To Die Like A Leaf

We all have to go through a time,
A season dying to our dreams,
And letting go of everything
We, in our selfishness, esteem.

We die with tears still in our eyes,
Because we cannot understand
The changing of the seasons here,
And all in store that God has planned.

But I shall ask you at this time
To take a look at autumn trees;
Their leaves will die and drift away,
There won’t be much that’s left to see,

But even as they die away,
They burst alive in brilliant flame!
They dance as they drop towards the ground
God’s love persisting to proclaim!

So let me die, Lord, as a leaf,
In brilliant beauty through the pain,
With hope that someday spring will come
And bring me back to life again.


2004

Autumn’s Dirge

The leaves drift down each day
As life has slipped away,
Cascades of color greet
The death that they soon meet…

The days are growing dim,
Retire with faces grim;
The birds have sailed the skies—
We follow through our sighs…

But still we linger here
And cast away our fear;
Why are we walking on?
We hold the hope of dawn…


2005

The Flame of Sacrifice

I feel as if I walk on holy ground:
The path is paved with yellow, crowned with red,
The blanket of a thousand dying dreams—
’Tis here the sacrifice of love is spread;

I lift my head and see the glowing fire
And marvel in the glory of the pain;
The leaves are dying, but they shine the more,
Their sacrifice a greater good proclaims!

Oh, friends, I know it hurts; I taste your tears,
But through the autumn color love is proved:
The flame of death is light to all the world,
For they will know that we are Christians by our love.