The Dance of the Leaftaking

She always seemed to run on ahead,

Skipping, prancing and dancing,

All the way to the Goblin’s Wood

While I followed on, romancing.

She never seemed to see me at all

Though she was my only vision,

The only feature that filled my world

Right through to the intermission.

 

She wore her hair in a plaited braid

That jiggled along behind her,

And left a trail like a dragon’s tail

So bright that the light would blind her,

But I was mesmerised by the legs

That danced in a crazy pattern,

They moved too fast for the man who begs

Or the girl that they call a slattern.

 

I’d see her shadow between the trees

As it weaved and it side-slipped gladly,

Whipping the pale white flight of the breeze

As the leaves whirled around her, madly,

Then all the denizens of the wood

Would come to the sight entrancing,

Dressed in the garb of the neighborhood

I’d leave them behind me, dancing.

 

‘Come out, come out,’ would the Goblins shout

But she’d leave them behind her, whirling,

The old ones suffered from reams of gout

And would sit with their hair there, curling,

I live in hopes that she’ll turn to me

When her dance has become more mellow,

Entwined around the mystery tree

Her dress fading green to yellow.

 

They call her Summer, but Autumn shades

Seem they’re a long time coming,

The leaves are skittering down like blades

In a part of the year that’s slumming,

The breeze is cool as I call her in

From the dance that she’s in the making,

While I, contented, await the sin

She keeps in the oven, baking.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Tomás Ó C..]

Beautiful use of language... the bun in the over and all!!!

[MomzillaNC]

This one struck me as rather Byronesque. There’s a lyrical, mythic quality to this one.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Another imaginative story David.

[Lydia Shutter]

Mystical and magical. Super personification. Warm and romantic...I liked it.

[DaVoid]

Love this. very imaginative and visual.

[ANTO]

Your mystical side has surely peaked when penning this one - perhaps subconsciously aided by your 'friend' who was deeply into that aspect of Life.
It's beyond anything I've read here David.

[TL Boehm]

Beautiful lyrical and wild writing even within its convention of meter and rhyme. The dance of leaves and summer personified - the heady romance of spring... of warmth and color. All woven in this poem.

[softlyfall]

This is so reminiscent of Lord Byron...well the Romanticists in general. And as wonderful as any I have read.

[richieb]

David, excellent imagery of nature, I could hear the leaves rustling and the twigs breaking. Taking a walk alone in the woods is always magical. Well done sir, Richie.