POETRY FRIDAY: Autumn Leaves

A Gathering of Poems about Autumn Leaves

Gathering Leaves in Grade School
by Judith Harris

They were smooth ovals,
and some the shade of potatoes—
some had been moth-eaten
or spotted, the maples
were starched, and crackled
like campfire.

We put them under tracing paper

and rubbed our crayons
over them, X-raying
the spread of their bones
and black, veined catacombs.

You can read the rest of the poem here.



Here are some of my original autumn poems and links to other fall offerings that I posted previously at Wild Rose Reader:

I can still remember childhood times when we’d rake up piles of autumn leaves and burn them at the side of the road. One thing I miss most about the fall season now is the smell of burning leaves. That scent so evoked the season for me. Here is a poem I wrote about one of those “burning” memories. It comes from A Home for the Seasons, an unpublished collection of poems about childhood days I spent at the home of my maternal grandparents, Michael Kozicki and Anna Chalupka Kozicka. Michael and Anna came to America from Poland in the early 20th century. They met in Boston, got married, and lived in Peabody, Massachusetts for all of their married lives. (Dzidzi is what we called my grandfather.)


AUTUMN FIRE
by Elaine Magliaro

Two tall maple trees grow
in front of my grandparents’ house.
In late October
they shed their golden crowns.
When the fallen leaves
curl up like little brown bear cubs,
we rake them into a pile
at the side of the street.
As dusk arrives
Dzidzi sets our harvest afire
with a single match.
We sit on wooden crates
at the sidewalk’s edge,
watch the brittle leaves
blossom into golden flames,
smell autumn’s pungent breath.
From the pyre summer rises,
a small gray ghost,
and drifts awayinto the darkening sky.


Here’s another poem I wrote about autumn leaves:

AUTUMN CELEBRATION
by Elaine Magliaro

In October, colored leaves
Fall from oak and maple trees…
Bright confetti shaken down
From their boughs. All over town
Trees are celebrating fall,
Decorating every wall,
Sidewalk, yard, and flowerbed
With pumpkin-orange, gold, and red.
We stand out in the falling leaves
And catch confetti on our sleeves,
In our hands and in our hair.
We party till the trees are bare.


And here’s an autumn acrostic for you:

MAPLE
by Elaine Magliaro

Mad magician of
Autumn
Painting
Leaves

Every color of the rainbow


Here are links to some of my posts at Wild Rose Reader for those of you interested in autumn leaf crafts and picture books and poetry books about autumn and autumn leaves:

Autumn Book Bunch: Leaves, Leaves Leaves!
Here you’ll find reviews of three picture books I highly recommend for reading to young children during the fall season: Oliver Finds His Way, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, and The Little Yellow Leaf.

Autumn Leaf Crafts & Activities

Look What I Did with a Leaf!
Here you’ll find a review of the nonfiction book Look What I Did with a Leaf!, which includes ideas and instructions for creating leaf animal collages. I used this book as a springboard for a cross curricular/collaborative art project I did with our art teacher when I taught second grade.

Fall into Poetry
Here you will find reviews of Dappled Apples, a picture book written in verse and three poetry collections--Autumnblings, Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic, and A Chill in the Air: Nature Poems for Fall and Winter.

At Wild Rose Reader, I have four autumn acrostics I wrote for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. You can find the Poetry Stretch Results here.

This week’s Poetry Friday Roundup is at Two Writing Teachers.