leave the leaves

I have pressed between these pages

the dreams of many trees

with their slender veins unfaded

and their colour still on fire

They fell with a sort of whisper

but I could not catch their song

so I caught them from the pavement

and slid them into my books

hoping that with all those words

they'd find something to say

But after all these years

I'd forgotten they were there

and to find them unchanged

caught me unawares

They lay there still ablaze

with all their autumn longing

a last leap into the wind

from the crowded broken stem

into a freedom scarce understood

I have caught and crushed them

and they remain uncrumbled

I wonder if someday a tree

will cover up my dreams

Will bury root and tendril deep

over my longest stretching sleep

I stole the drifting leaves
I snatched them from the air
Dark and deep my winter’s sleep
And I am quickly old.
For they are dream of root and bough
and must wander as they go
Child, let the floating color pass
On wind, it’s quickest road
So may you dream and lightly sleep
Before the winter’s cold.