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34: To Autumn

Today's poem is 34: To Autumn by Christian Barter. It is read by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc.

34: To Autumn

Mariah, as the light comes later and later,
what sings is right to the point: the crow's shrieked Wait!
down a long hall, the tuneless laughter
of a pileated, breaking apart the quiet.
And the cool of the driveway in the dawn
is like a glimpse of my own window after
a sleep so deep I'm not sure where I've woken.
I have made it, Lord, through another summer
and I'm here to collect on the promise of the cold:
cold clarity, things as they really are—
cold beauty, and cold truth—the sky, set down
its burden of pollutants, bringing me
the mountains from across the bay—so clear
that if the earth were flat, you could see forever.