In the End

Autumn, again

remains of all I've left behind

this year: a decade

my sixth, finds me

tidying ledgers

sifting through leaves

the shallow graves of old friends

long ago accounts

closed. A few musty thoughts

lifted from the youth-

full notebooks I kept

as a hedge against

the inevitable tide

pulling back to the sea

brings me to the edge

of my senses, dark well

of a mind's declination:

the gray matters of a life

like grass, need cutting

the unkindness of a scythe

harvesting the artless

declension of a language, 

denouement to the plague

of posies, black eyed ravens

circling overhead. In the end

I surmise the last pages of a book

will outlive the ink.

Ken e Bujold

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

Belated birthday greetings Ken.

Black eyed ravens
circling overhead

Yes, tha autumn years do have a habit of bringing those nasty ravens hovering. Not an avian friend I can warm too :)

Quite a dark and brooding write, albeit superbly penned my friend. Plenty of emotion in these lines.

Chris

[Red Brick Keshner]

It still astounds me how autumny the feel is of this later adulthood in our life. My "stuff" of a younger self was stored in a dilapidating ancestral home and that was in the last decade was demolished and sold. Little or nothing survives of that and here online is quite a similar, if digitally unfolding. The bytes will continue to spout and it shall outlive I suspect my wifi connectivity. Superb Ken.

[Coyote Poetry]

Deep and powerful thoughts shared Ken.
"circling overhead. In the end
I surmise the last pages of a book
will outlive the ink."
The above lines. I think about also. What will we leave behind? Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry and your thoughts.
Coyote

[lildot]

Well done, and Happy Belated Birthday! While reading I visualized and felt so many emotions. I especially liked the last sentence. I'm looking forward to reading your next year's birthday poem .... 'lil dot ...

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks lil. hope to still be around to write it :)

ken

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks lil. hope to still be around to write it :)

ken

[lildot]

You better be

[Gee]

Belated birthday wishes Ken, hope you had a good day.
I too turned 60 this year, in April, and celebrated by going to Italy in February to watch rugby, then France in May to cycle 500 miles over 5 days for charity, then in July it was off to Portugal with my wife and 7 good friends, September to the Greek island of Corfu with my beloved wife and scattered between numerous celebratory meals and 2 weekends away. Best time of my life
Anyway, your poem. Looking more to the bleak than bright with eyes and thoughts focused on the time left and not the time spent...I think:))
Good to read you

[W. Barrett Munn]

I sense a fatalism in these words that is neither optimistic nor pessimistic but tries to describe the reality of what we believe to be unreal to trust, our emotions. In the big picture we are indeed blank pages.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

that about sums it. My birthday poem. every year I write one on the day, a sort of summing up of a year. this one was a milestone, turned 60, and it had me assessing time more so than the year. Jacob's comment got me thinking if I had a fav line in the piece: and i think i do: gray matters of life/like grass, need cutting not sure where it came from, but was damn happy when it did. as good a hinge as i have constructed in quite some time
ken

[W. Barrett Munn]

I agree with Jacob that there is definitely some Plath lurking.
Congrats, I thought it stellar.

Winston

[jacob erin-cilberto]

sounds so Plath-like.
autumn...nearing the end...filling the pages as much as we are allowed before it is over.
That is what we will leave...our legacy will be the words we have written.
Are they worth anything....we hope so, but that will be determined by others
after we are gone...not us.
This poem is so damn good...."harvesting the declension of language"...wish I had written that line.
j.

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you Jacob. was channeling Heaney more so than anyone I think. I was (am) a huge fan of his work and had the opportunity to pick his brain a couple of times as we shared a mutual friend. Was an extremely generous man

[W. Barrett Munn]

That means you’d rather write than shovel, I guess.

W.

[John the Baptist]

Speaking from the eighth decade, I am sorry to tell you it gets no better. The familiar changes, people pass and the clock seems inclined to sprint. On the other hand, I have been reading Marcus Aurelius of late, and the noble old Roman reminds us that we have never owned more than the present moment. Own that as fully as you can, for it's really all that is.

[Ken e Bujold]

i am a fan of the Stoics myself John. Partial to Seneca and the young Cato. the movement had a huge impact on early Christianity, Paul and Ambrose were both heavily influenced by them. If only the later 1600+ yrs had similar sentiments (a debate for a whole other time). As for the poem. wrote it the evening of my 60th bday, (introspective, but not particularly blue that night) but took me a week to polish it up and post.