Returning Autumn

Kathleen Raine 1908-2003


All creatures passionate for grace

Quest their desire through the groves and seas

That flesh may win a human face,

And pain be crowned with holiness.



And lovers out of present days

Float back upon the body’s dream

Of a green branch that drips and sways,

Caught in the current of a stream

Autumn

Kathleen Raine



Leaf-FALL,

And the long –for missed again

Between the coming and the gone;

Yet, in the tree’s thinning leaves crown

In this faded year-worn scrawl,

Blade’s blot, bare stoke of petiole

Wind-tattered on the ragged sky

Stands ciphered still.



Oval Portrait 1977