LAKE COUNTY — The following poems have been selected by Lake County Poet Laureate Richard V. Schmidt from the work of a local poet.
Season of Leftovers
This is the season of leftovers.
The brown lawn beneath the walnut tree
littered with burst husks
split into tatters of squishy decay
The mocking bird
flying silently from atop the telephone pole
leaving the echo of someone else’s song
Grapes, long picked,
leaving dying leaves
of russet, gold and fading green
The harvest is gathered and barned:
fields sharp with brittle stubble
waiting for the ruthless edge
of the tractor disc
Apples and peaches and fig trees
sloughing off withered remembrances
of summer green
But yet,
should one lose heart
in this season of decline and decay,
the persimmons glow
sunset orange
storing up sweet juices
from the deepening frost.
Harvest Home
Beneath the arched footbridge
mirroring itself in watery autumnal opulence,
the creek burbles with gray grebes
diving and surfacing,
dainty creatures
like children’s bathtub toys,
yet sinewy and elegant as miniature swans
Parklands turn dun and golden and russet
shimmering in greens
like aching passion aflame with the season’s dying
In my garden
walnuts roll knobbled and crunchy
off the washing rack–
really a patio table,
into recycled cardboard boxes
Underfoot,
on the grass,
split shells and decaying hulls
darken with the sogging leaves
edging into compost
I pluck persimmons early,
hard and unripened,
in competition with a rising, sweeping cloud of black birds
whistling though the branches
in a chittering symphony
Each singular fruit fills my hand
smooth, rounded, globed
flagrantly orange
in the astonishing sunshine of mid-November.
— Lourdes Thuesen
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The Creative Expressions column is a space for local Lake County poets and writers to share their work with their community. Creative Expressions is supported by the Lake County Arts Council. For more information and to submit a poem or short piece of creative writing, email rvschmidt2@gmail.com.
