Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Amber Sunshine

The Stamp River, above Stamp Falls
Amber sunshine calls me
down the road
through drifting leaves
of saffron, umber, gold.
One might be
inclined to think
with this
the whole story
already
has been
told.
But the smell of
burning leaves
carries me back
to bygone days:
crisp winter
afternoons,
mix of lowering gray
and purple haze,
the rising of the moon,
and I'm walking
home from school
inside the falling dark,
pungent breath of smoke,
leaf-rot, dry bark,
in the dead-leaf-scented air.
Lights glow in all the windows
for homes are everywhere.
I always am outside
a wanderer looking in,
and this is where
my search for home
begins.
In darkening dusky yards
men would be raking,
as hungry dogs
barked their dinners in,
I shivering in my coat
that's blue and thin,
hollow and hungry,
not expecting
to be fed,
my spirit
flying
looking for
a place to land.
Only now
do I begin to
understand
my pilgrimage-
and how
surely,
if obscurely,
I was led.
Outside the warmth
of other peoples' lives,
stoically trudging
through the crackle and the gloom,
I walked past
all the perfect picket fences,
up the stairs,
opened the door
into the stale and empty rooms.
From there to here,
so many autumn fires,
so many roads less traveled,
houses I wrapped around me
like a shell.
Only three were homes,
out of them all.
Still, every fall
leaf-smoke smell
wafting gently
on the air
transports me to Kelowna.
For moments I am aware
that once again
I am fourteen
and such a sad
and lonely pilgrim
there.

4 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Love the blog. great job.

    You are invited to follow my blog. I think you would like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Savannah. I checked you out quickly, but will come back and read more thoroughly. Thanks for stopping by my site!

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  3. Sherry, I just love poems of reminiscing such as this one...I enjoyed a glimpse of your childhood!

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  4. Thanks, Mary.......most of my writing tends to be memoir style, so there'll be more:) Thanks for visiting!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for visiting. I appreciate it and will return your visit soon.