Hello dear readers,

Where ever I walk or drive these days gives me a smile. The trees are giving me their last show of the year before becoming dormant for the winter. When I was a school girl I loved drawing the leafless trees of winter (probably because they looked more realistic than my scribble of spring and summer trees) but I loved looking at the autumn trees — they reminded me of my box of crayons. And every fall I still ohh and aah over the reds and yellows and multicolored leaves that float down from the many trees on this street where I live. Write a poem with some reference to a season and enjoy this beautiful fall.

The most recent issue of Verse Wisconsin (112) has two poems of mine but they didn’t get my revisions or weren’t able to print them so here is one of the poems printed the way I wrote it: (sort of – my version was actually round.)

Buttons Buttons.

Mom cut them snip snip,

green, brown, and white popped

into an old tin. She had graduated from

fashion school, ingenuity and thrift the main

courses. Our corduroys outlasted the shirts she

tore into pieces. The           long strips Dad used

to stake his tomatoes. Mom avoided the yard, gnats

and horseflies  bit, left pink welts on her young skin.

The corn stalks grew tall, she did not see their green

thick stems or the tassels          gold silk in the wind.

She cooked corn chowder. We helped wipe tables

and scrub sinks with clean rags. She carefully

bought white shirts for Dad. Doll clothes

and puppets made with clean rags and

lots of buttons are stitched by

my five granddaughters.

Buttons Buttons.

You get the picture — write a poem in form in honor of the new season.  This button poem is my example. Usually experimenting with lines and words is repeated before you reach the exact form that you want.