Autumn’s Death

by TRAVIS TAPLEY

Leaves turning brown, falling to their death
Severed from limbs like cast away children
Whispering winds comfort their descent
Peaceful words of becoming one with the earth.

Severed from limbs like cast away children
Listen to the sounds as you gracefully fall
Peaceful words of becoming one with the earth
Slowly fade back into mother nature. 

Listen to the sounds as you gracefully fall
Float into the shallow ribbons of green
Slowly fade back into mother nature
Nourish the roots with life in your death 

Float into the shallow ribbons of green
Gracefully you drift to your resting place
Nourish the roots with life in your death
Feed the hungry buds that come forth in spring.

Gracefully you drift to your resting place
Melting, melting, you slowly turn to crumbs
Feed the hungry buds that come forth in spring
Leaves turning brown falling to their death.

*The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle in that there are repeating lines throughout the poem. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final. Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply recontextualizing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantoum