In Russet and Silver

NaPoWriMo day 1: "They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said you can’t try to write a poem based on a book cover — and that’s your challenge for today! Take a look through Public Domain Review’s article on “The Art of Book Covers.”" My eye was drawn to the cover of In Russet and Silver by Edmund Gosse, and my imagination took over.

In russet and silver the track winds and veers
Through drifts of wet leaves laid down over years, 
Tall slender trunks bar the view either side
I can only see forward, so onward I stride.
No sound penetrates this dense dark thicket
It's silence unnerves, becomes claustrophobic,
Then the air stills its motion, the earth holds its breath
While the season proceeds from life into death.
I break out of the copse, to a wide open plain
My heart finds its rhythm calming again. 

© Copyright 2023. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved

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