OT: a lovely Autumn poem...

[Guest guest]

I just got this sent to me in an email and wanted

to share it with all of you. Hope you are enjoying

the beautiful Autumn day.

 

~ PT ~

 

Soaking Up Sun

by Tom Hennen

 

Today there is the kind of sunshine old men love,

the kind of day when my grandfather would sit

on the south side of the wooden corncrib where

the sunshine warmed slowly all through the day

like a wood stove. One after another dry leaves

fell. No painful memories came. Everything was

lit by a halo of light. The cornstalks glinted bright

as pieces of glass. From the fields and cottonwood

grove came the damp smell of mushrooms, of

things going back to the earth. I sat with my grand

father then. Sheep came up to us as we sat there,

their oily wool so warm to my fingers, like a strange

and magic snow. My grandfather whittled sweet

smelling apple sticks just to get at the scent. His

thumb had a permanent groove in it where the

back of the knife rested. He let me listen to

the wind, the wild geese, the soft dialect of sheep,

while his own silence taught me every secret thing

he knew.

 

© Tom Hennen

from CRAWLING OUT THE WINDOW, published by

Black Hat Press, Goodhue, Minnesota, 1997