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Autumn Ambivalence
Karen
Davies

We sit near the stream edge, under the pine's
brittle
fingers. Our collective breath
drapes between low branches

like a
foggy sheet across autumn's arms.
You spot a black bear in the
distance;
I marvel how a sky so blue

can be so cold. Daylight has
become
brief, the valley blurred into a ribbon
of frayed leaves. At
dusk I see

Denali's shadow from my balcony,
moose eat fuchsias by
the backyard deck.
Stalks of rhubarb bend

and twist to earth,
breathing
a chilly sigh. No matter how many
winters I greet, this place

will always seem foreign to me.
Everything lies exposed, the beauty

is too vast. God is too near.

Review by Carol Lynn Stevenson
Grellas

brittle fingers. Our collective breath
drapes between low branches

This appears as a quiet, unassuming poem. The speaker has
carefully created a visual ambiance of beauty with a selection of airy words
that ballet about the page softly, in a poetic dance. We are given a dreamlike
landscape which is lovely and calm, a tranquil scene, yet so vividly
expressed, it feels tangible. What begins so gracefully on the page leads us
lightly through pines and low branches as autumn removes its traces of summer
and prepares us for the eventuality of winter. The word “autumn” feels
specifically chosen: the perfect word as it can be seen as the speaker viewing
life with seasons depicting the aging process or the transformation from one
period of life to another. Winter closes in a little more with each stanza.

like a foggy sheet across autumn's
arms.
You spot a black bear in the distance;
I marvel how a sky so
blue

The becalming nature of this poem is equally ominous as
daylight becomes briefer, with shadows of mountains menacing overhead. There
is a burst of color from moose nibbling on fuchsias as rhubarb bow to earth
but with the mention of a chilly sigh the tone heads further into intimations
of unpleasantness, of a winter that will be too long. This tiptoeing elegance
builds to a formidable last statement: “God is too near.” This shift, almost
volta-like, brings the writing to a superb climax. All that preceded, leading
us here, to this one declaration. It’s as though we feel some fantastic
trepidation before us.

Everything
lies exposed, the beauty
is too vast. God is too
near.

Reviewing this poem, I would say there is a
epistemological contradiction taking place within the speaker’s feelings
towards the supernatural world and the world she lives in. It is this
dichotomy and vulnerability that makes this poem profound; the slow creep that
begins and brings us nearer to the realm of the unknown and the honest fear of
what’s to come.

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