Crisp Earth

I cross the field's crunching cornstalks, 
brittle limbs whispering
in a gentle breeze. The shadows
slant across tree branches,
narrowing daylight 
into frangible bits.
The packed dirt is crisp underfoot, damp with
autumn rains and hardening overnight to cement today's footsteps in frost-crusted morning light,
memorialized in nature's ephemeral season.

This poem is in response to this week’s Wea’ve Written Weekly at the Skeptic’s Kaddish. Suzette created this week’s prompt, which is as follows:

Compose a poem on the theme of: What ‘harvest’ means to you.

Harvest time always puts in mind colorful leaves, a chilly nip in the air, and autumn walks. We managed a couple of nice fall walks recently, one as a part of a Cub Scouts outing with the kids. The younger kids were enthusiastically crunching through the brightly colored leaves and collecting them in their pockets. Our garden is finally calling it a year, though we still have too many butternut squash to eat on our own. We donated some to our church’s fall festival a few weeks ago, and some to local friends and family; we’ll donate more to friends and others in town in the coming weeks. There’s a welcoming feeling this time of year even as we sense an end to a lot of things, too: to warm weather, the garden, long days, short sleeves, and many of our outdoor adventures.

20 thoughts on “Crisp Earth

      1. Thanks, David! I will check it out later this week. Also, I hope you and your loved ones are doing okay; it looks like some difficult times in your part of the world right now. Prayers to you all. ❤️

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  1. I could feel the air – crunchy in character and the sun trying to warm upturned faces. The chill wind stealing what warmth that lingered from the sunny days…. I love this early walk through corn fields!!

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    1. It is interesting to think about, and it’s different in other parts of the country, too. Down south, they don’t really have much of an autumn, and I think it’s different on the coasts, too. I’m just a few hours south of Canada, so we get a rainy spring, cool autumn, a short summer, and an extra long winter ❄️ What are your seasons like?

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