Fallen, or: Swept away

Posted on by ben Alexander

Poetry Partners #131

‘The Fallen’, a poem by Brandon Ellrich 

The sun grows weary of providing warmth,
And birds must bend to his whims.
Leaves have betrayed their host,
And fallen from their homes.
The jealous wind, no longer seen,
In the branches of the trees,
Now sweeps through the discarded canopy,
To show that she’s still here.
Soon she will rely on her bitter chill,
To make her presence known.
The squirrel, betrayed by the leaves as well,
Must hide away inside;
Surrounded by his hoarded stash,
The leaves, his blanket, bed.
Like beautiful fallen angels,
The leaves adorn the ground,
But are soon forgotten, discarded,
Swept away, blown about.
Just around the corner, new green leaves will grow,
Leaving the fallen to be trampled underfoot.

A Gogyōka by ben Alexander of ‘The Skeptic’s Kaddish’

I'm ignorant, but less so than in my childhood
An adult imagination fills in my knowledge gaps
More leaves than homeless people lie on the ground
That is my assumption, but leaves get raked away
So, maybe not

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

List of Poetry Partners

22 thoughts on “Fallen, or: Swept away”

  2. “But the leaves get raked away”. 🤔😮👏That’s profound and well observed David! 👌👏😁
    “The sun grows weary of providing warmth… ”
    “The leaves betray their host”…
    Some wonderful lines here Brandon! 👏👏😁❤️❤️

  4. Hey but the tree still stands
    Unshaken, beautifying the fallen all around.
    Waiting for that cold soft blanket to make love to its bare branches
    With the fallen
    The tree still stands

    Yes, how lovely humans treat the leaves, gathering them up for compost ground
    And US?

      1. It ties in with our failure to solve our refugee problems, and the way they have become political pawns, dehumanized, as the homeless always seem to be.

  6. Brandon’s poem dances like leaves in the wind only hinting at the impermanence of life and living. David, yours puts the transient nature of man in perspective in a stark analogy to falling leaves. Both have the chill of impending winter woven between the lines!

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