The leaves of the Maple
have fallen by now;
All but the few
still linger, somehow.Glory! in colors –
red, green and orange!
I feel I should know them,
but don’t, they’re still foreign.And yet something strange,
as leaves from a tree,
A metaphor, Maple;
leaves, memory:I knew them as only
they would know me,
And those who have fallen,
are long gone by now;But still I remember,
as strangers somehow –
Friends in the spate,
the short here-and-now.So much for the Maple,
as metaphors be;
And leaves that are peopled
by metaphor trees.©2014, Marvin Welborn
11 Nov 2014. Revised 20 Dec 2014; 4 Feb 2015; 30 May 2016
The leaves of the Maple
have fallen by now.
All but the few
still linger, somehow.
Glory! in colors –
green, red and orange!
I feel I should know them;
I don’t, they are foreign.
And something as strange
as leaves from a tree:
A metaphor, Maple,
leaves, memory.
I knew them only
as they would know me,
And those who have fallen,
Are long gone by now;
But still I remember
as strangers, somehow:
Friends in the spate
of the short here-and-now.
So much for the Maple,
as metaphors be;
and leaves that are peopled
by metaphor trees.
©2014, Marvin Welborn
11 Nov 2014. Revised 20 Dec 2014.
Tink's ChapBlog ~ Tales of the Tribe. Mythopoeic Verse 
Sometimes the things, or people for that matter, that seem so close or familiar seem to elude us.
Very deep & earnest poem here.
I use maple leaves as a metaphor a lot of times ~ Admiring the use of “peopled” by metaphor leaves ~ Wishing you Merry Christmas ~
Lovely write–I love your close here!
a grace of Seuss, to me ~
Metaphor tree…a brilliant piece of writing. It’s certainly tough to see all these metaphoric leaves drifting away, but to extend that metaphor…spring is coming, when new friends can blossom.
The last stanza is a great one.. Wonderful thought of the metaphor tree.. Greta rhythm and repetitions.
it is about relationship..those of the leaves we never knew we don’t care much for their fall… others we cling to and sometimes wish we could fall with them…
Clever close which turns the metaphor on its head and injects wry humour into the proceedings – a shift which reminded me of the volva turn in a sonnet.
That’s about as fine a rhymed poem as I’ve read in a long, long time, Marvin. A joy to read and speak.
The lightness of the rhyme deceives the deepness that lies behind the words. I especially liked these two stanzas:
“I knew them only
as they would know me,
And those who have fallen,
Are long gone by now;
But still I remember
as strangers, somehow:
Friends in the spate
of the short here-and-now.”
It feels like brothers-in-arms, standing side-by-side.Reminds me of a recently viewed movie, “Fury,” where the new recruit was told not to “get to close” to anyone. Even in our lives friends come and go, some leave and some pass on. This is very well done.
Ah.. the tree of life is born both of trees past and trees present.. and all maple leaves present and lost are part of that tree of togetherness as ONE..
PRESENT:)
Happy Holidays!