This Spare Autumn Day

This Spare Autumn Day

 

Having Beheld the Miracle of Autumn,

 I Bargained with the Powers That Be

 

-

 

I ask no more than this spare autumn day �"

But let this day endure all days to come!

 

For in the whisk of my love’s trifling eye,

I see again the gleam that signifies

 

The coming of a wind

And best of all your blessings -

 

That pungent unction in the wasting leaves,

Bleeding from the knotty arms of trees,

And spreading like a painted cloak

About a spent and naked form!

 

Oh, show me, show me now

Your fresh unfinished work,[1]

 

That I may know the life I forfeit

 

Is not lost in vain,

 

But brings about a good

All eyes can see

 

Oh, give to me this autumn day,

And let my heart be yours again!

---

[1] Paris is referring to that which comes when death is no more.