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Autumn Winds have Come Again

Autumn winds have come again,
Whistling wafts are dithering,
Trees are shedding leaves like rain,
Garden vines are withering.

Looking from my window sill
Out into the snowy night,
Snowflakes clad the leaves until
My world’s wrapped in a winking white.

Here inside I start a fire,
Safe from winter’s reckoning.
My heart’s filled with a warm desire.
Flames of Life are beckoning.

.

.

LTC Roy E. Peterson, US Army Military Intelligence and Russian Foreign Area Officer (Retired) has published more than 5,000 poems in 78 of his 101 books. He has been an Army Attaché in Moscow, Commander of INF Portal Monitoring in Votkinsk, first US Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia and Regional Manager in the Russian Far East for IBM. He holds a BA, Hardin-Simmons University (Political Science); MA, University of Arizona (Political Science); MA, University of Southern California (Int. Relations) and MBA University of Phoenix. He taught at the University of Arizona, Western New Mexico University, University of Maryland, Travel University and the University of Phoenix.

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33 Responses

  1. Shamik Banerjee

    Thank you for this beautiful poem, Mr. Peterson. I love its fluid musicality and imagery. I was hooked on it right from the first line, and admittedly, the final two lines bore me relief as I could actually sense ‘life beckoning’ to me as it did to the character of the poem.

    Reply
  2. James Sale

    Some lovely sound effects in this, Roy – very good. I especially like the alliteration of ‘My world’s wrapped in a winking white.’ Quite exquisite – thanks.

    Reply
  5. Brian A. Yapko

    This is truly beautiful, Roy — the imagery and the sentiments behind them. I love the progression of the season and the retreat into a place “safe from winter’s reckoning.” “Flames of life” is a striking image.

    Reply
  6. Warren Bonham

    I really enjoyed this one and can’t add much to what’s already been said other than to say that I’m not ready for the autumn winds to kick into gear.

    Reply
  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    This poem touches upon a preference that some of us have for the cooler seasons over the warm ones. Cold weather outside while you sit snug by a fireplace is deeply pleasant, and the last quatrain of this piece expresses it perfectly.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      Wonderful assessment, Joseph. There is much to be said about the weather changing over to cooler temperatures, which we can enjoy with a warm fire burning inside.

      Reply
  9. Paul A. Freeman

    I’m intrigued, Roy. From the second quatrain it seems that snow is already covering the autumn leaves where you are.

    It’s been a while since I’ve watched snow falling from the sanctuary of indoors. Your piece brings back that feeling.

    Thanks for the read.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      I hearken back to my childhood years spent in South Dakota until the age of 13, when the winds would already be blowing and colder in September and October, sometimes with an early snow.

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Hey Roy, I was pretty sure that we hadn’t had any snow in Texas yet!

      • Paul A. Freeman

        Sorry, Roy. I forgot you live in Texas.

        Thanks for pointing out my error, Mike.

      • Mike Bryant

        Actually, Paul, Amarillo in the panhandle of Texas had 0.3” of snow on September 29, 1984. So it is absolutely not out of the realms of possibility.

      • Paul A. Freeman

        Funnily enough, and Susan can confirm how odd this would have been, in June 1983, we left Torquay in Devon one morning, for a prehistoric site on Dartmoor called Grimspound (‘Grim’ meaning Devil) to discover it had snowed during the night and the snow was in the process of melting.

  11. Patrick Murtha

    Thank you for sharing this poem. The sounds are pleasant. The images in the first stanza reminded me of–today! The word “waft” threw me a little, as a waft is gentle, but this “waft” is “whistling,” which suggests some piercing frigidness. Somehow “dither” both clarifies and confuses. The idea of dithering (besides the shivering or trembling) is also being indecisive. There is a certain irony in this term. “Dither” can not only mean “indecisive” but it is also a technique for changing gray-scaled images into black and white, which means it is clarifying or making distinct.

    But then the autumn turned too quickly to winter. And that confused me. (And yet, autumn is such a short span.)

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      Patrick, those are some interesting comments about the words, “waft” and “dither.” Wafting for me is a prelude to the stronger winter winds to follow. The Merriam Webster Dictionary adds to “indecisive,” “The meaning of DITHER is shiver, tremble.” The wafting and the dithering in my mind are linked to the leaves being shaken from trees.

      Reply
  13. Margaret Coats

    Lovely seasonal poem, Roy, with a subtle turn from the usual iambic to trochaic meter. Not too early, as I recall September snow in Massachusetts. “Clad” is a past participle version of “clothed,” so to maintain your present tense, I might suggest “Snow is clothing leaves until.” Emphasizes long vowel “o,” too. “Clad” could, I suppose, become present tense as industrial usage (“we are cladding the wires with insulation”), but that sense doesn’t suit your lively clothing of nature in the next line’s “world” which is “wrapped in a winking white.” Your ultimate move to “flames of life” actually steals spring for winter with cozy warm motion at the poem’s finish.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      Margaret, you seem to come the closest to my hidden double meaning of “Flames of Life,” which is making passionate love as well as spending time by the fireside. That is the reason I capitalized “Life.”

      Reply
      • Margaret Coats

        Modestly concealed in the poem, but pleasant privacy is usually preferred for fanning those Flames of Life

  14. David Hollywood

    This is a lovely poem, and reminds me of when I lived in climates where it was either hot or else it was warm all year round, and how I yearned for Autumn and its announcement of winter to come, and consequently how much nicer each season was when experiencing the changes that came from enjoying four of them each year. You have recaptured it for me. Thank you Roy.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      I can certainly understand those feelings. Thank you for sharing.

      Reply

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