Yet committed, criminalised,
a suicide, when spade is called,
the cycled seasons, winter, spring,
but due to fall, like Eden’s sin,
the twisted, fallen, in final pact;
where goldleaf applied resting place,
the lives laid down that others rise
from underground to canopy –
if so for plants than what of us?
The message in the foliage,
autumn’s magic not wizardry,
though miracle of life from dead,
a common principle of earth –
a beautiful death, year in the round.
Stephen Kingsnorth (Cambridge M.A., English & Religious Studies), retired to Wales from ministry in the Methodist Church due to Parkinson’s Disease, has had pieces published by on-line poetry sites, printed journals and anthologies, including Poetry Potion.
His blog is at https://poetrykingsnorth.wordpress.com/