Running in Autumn

During my junior year of high school, my english teacher gave me a poem by Robert Frost titled Leaf Treader. I was a lover of leaves long before this poem. Autumn has always been my favorite season: the crunching of leaves, the running of cross country meets, the breathing of crisp, cool air. There is a beauty in the season that accompanies nostalgia of the past and concern for the future.

Robert Frost wrote:

I have been treading on leaves all day until I am autumn tired
Lord knows all the color and form of leaves I have trodden on and mired

Perhaps I have put forth too much strength or been too fierce from fear ...
I have safely trodden underfoot the leaves of another year

All summer long they were overhead more lifted up than I
To come to their final place in earth they had to pass me by

All summer long I thought I heard them whispering under their breath
And when they came it seemed with a will to carry me with them to

They spoke to the fugitive in my heart as if it were leaf to leaf

They tapped at my eyelids and touched my lips with an invitation to grief

But it was no reason I had to go because they had to go ...
Now UP MY KNEE to keep atop another year of snow.

(Photo 1: Dansville, NY)
(Photo 2: Grand Rapids, MI)