Final Autumn

Final Autumn

By Annie Finch b. 1956 Annie Finch
Maple leaves turn black in the courtyard.
Light drives lower and one bluejay crams
our cold memories out past the sun,

each time your traces come past the shadows
and visit under my looking-glass fingers
that lift and block out the sun.

Come—I’ll trace you one final autumn,
and you can trace your last homecoming
into the snow or the sun.

Annie Finch, "Final Autumn" from Calendars, published by Tupelo Press. Copyright © 2003 by Annie Finch.  Reprinted by permission of the author.

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Poet Annie Finch b. 1956

Subjects Nature, Fall, Landscapes & Pastorals

Poetic Terms Free Verse

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Annie Finch

Biography

Annie Finch is the author or editor of fifteen books of poetry, translation, and criticism, including the trilogy of poetry collections Eve (1997), Calendars (2003), and Spells, and the long poems The Encyclopedia of Scotland (2002) and Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams (2009). Calendars was shortlisted for the Foreword Poetry Book of the Year Award, and Eve reissued in the Carnegie Mellon Classic . . .

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SUBJECT Nature, Fall, Landscapes & Pastorals

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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