Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SERE AND YELLOW LEAF, by KAREN SWENSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SERE AND YELLOW LEAF, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Is it time to write the sere
Last Line: The brass flower of his horn into the city's evening.
Subject(s): Hope; Love; Poetry & Poets; Optimism


Is it time to write the sere
and yellow leaf poem?
Cavafy's body reviews an amorous career.
Millay chants an iambic requiem
for lips and arms that sloshed over the brim
of her memory. But I'm not sure it's time
to erect a body-part memorial totem.
There may be yet another who'll twine
with the through the interstices of life's design.

Should he not appear, that hope without a name,
still love's coals will shimmer heat
to be breathed into a plume of flame
or schools of sparks, a paradox that metes
out warmth to cool life's burns, a balm
proffered to the swarm of humans bubbling
by in time. That flame, those sparks exclaim
in the notes of the corner man blowing
the brass flower of his horn into the city's evening.




Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net