Like Coins, November

November 16, 2011

Photo courtesy stock.xchng
 I love poems in which the central metaphors are fresh and original, and here’s a marvelous, coiny description of autumn by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck, who lives in Illinois. [Introduction by Ted Kooser.]

Like Coins, November

We drove past late fall fields as flat and cold
as sheets of tin and, in the distance, trees

were tossed like coins against the sky. Stunned gold
and bronze, oaks, maples stood in twos and threes:

some copper bright, a few dull brown and, now
and then, the shock of one so steeled with frost

it glittered like a dime. The autumn boughs
and blackened branches wore a somber gloss

that whispered tails to me, not heads. I read
memorial columns in their trunks; their leaves

spelled UNUM, cent; and yours, the only head. . .
in penny profile, Lincoln-like (one sleeve,

one eye) but even it was turning tails
as russet leaves lay spent across the trails.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck. Reprinted from “The Spoon River Poetry Review,” Vol. XXXIII, no. 1, 2008, by permission of Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

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6 comments

  1. Hi Kathy ... thanks for the beautiful picture and beautiful words.

    Kathy M.

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  2. So appropriate, but I've not ever made the connection between coins and autumn colors before. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I'm glad you enjoyed this--I thought the images were so beautiful and striking.

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  4. Hello Kathy,
    Wonderful shot.
    Amazing these autumn colors.

    Greetings, Marco

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  5. Thanks for reading, Marco. The colors are beautiful, aren't they?

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  6. Wow - descriptive words that will roam in my mind for a while. A wonderful poem!

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