Be sure to check below this first post for additional posts. This is being kept high up on the list so that people will continue to add and admire the works of others. Autumn Brightness is really taking off, and we've even had an adidition to "Autumn? What Autumn?" thanks to Mrs. Darwin.
While it is more usual to assemble linked verse one contribution at a time, because so much good was offered and so much that will work together, I have assembled the following offerings.
The next step is to choose a strain (please indicate in your contribution) and add the next link in the verse.
To be faithful to the authors--I removed additional indications of break as they are not usual part of the linking. In one case I made a plausible edit, in another requested an author's permission to add to the contribution.
Now I present my compilation and ask for the next contributions. The fun of linked verse is to wrench the poem out of the direction it was going and give it a new heading that still makes sense. I hope these do that so far.
Autumn Brightness
Fall fell in one night
cold crept in, painting the sky,
summer's cessation
The calendar page rustles
Smoke in the rain wind wakes me
One last cricket song
Train whistles while gutters drip
Dark night but cheerful
Now grass is dry from summer
Heat lingers on golden hills
As our summer ends
We wait for the winter rain
But first the wild fires
fires that burn in falling leaves
in leaves in swirls underfoot
Cool in the nostrils
Running loose on the wet grass
Fall remembers me
The sounds of dried leaves crunching
The smell of hot dogs cooking
Cheers from the home crowd,
On a crisp fall afternoon:
Football has returned!
Winter grey-brown sea begins
to limn the shoreline--salt frost
Birds return, ibis
once again strut and pluck lawns--
bold October looms.
Seeking porchlights, out past dark
Muffled laughter, running feet
Tennis-shoed pirates,
Princesses, ninjas and ghosts;
Ding-dong: Trick or Treat!
Blue Angels each October,
While the ocean turns cooler.
Fog in the morning
Near the sea, sunny afternoons,
November fireplaces.
Autumn. Poor Souls Purgatory
Reminds us of death decay.
But my Spirit rises
As I see resurrection
In luminous leaves.
dewdrop on red leaf fallen
in the early autumn grass
color surprises
morning's brightness magnified
with a trace of chill
Autumn Bleakness
Fall fell in one night
cold crept in, painting the sky,
summer's cessation
I am her friend and lover
waking to her misty dawn
prayers spill from mouths --
cloudy little pools of hope
lost as the day warms
Like grey leaves, our lives grow dim.
Will we see the winter's birth?
Drive, work, a pay stub:
These define life's borderlines.
Happiness eludes.
To be found again in sweat
Spent for love without reward.
O little bold squirrel,
You cross the road fearlessly,
But brother lies dead
Autumn? What Autumn?
Fall fell in one night
cold crept in, painting the sky,
summer's cessation
But not all is quiet,
with the children who are working together
to create a puzzle picture
while Mama writes a poem.
Images alive become
Images living in words.
Happy laughter rings.
Mama pauses, wishes she
Could find the camera.
Note this last strain is a more avant-garde form in which the more or less thirty-one syllables are used at the poet's command. A much more challenging linkage.
Remember, to add on--2 7-syllable lines, and a 5-7-5. So, overall you have: 7-7-5-7-5--thirty-one delectable little syllables to share autumn where you are.