Thursday 25 November 2010

No no no no November

November has tied me
to an old dead tree
get word to April
to rescue me.

November's cold chain
made of wet boots and rain
and shiny black ravens
on chimney smoke lanes

Tom Waits, 'November'


No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, - November!

Thomas Hood, 'No!'


While November numbly collapses,
this beech tree, heavy as death
on the lawn, braces for throat-
cutting ice, bandaging snow.

Edwin Honig, 'November Through a Giant Copper Beech'


Fog in November, trees have no heads,
Streams only sound, walls suddenly stop
Half-way up hills, the ghost of a man spreads
Dung on dead fields for next year's crop.

Leonard Clark, 'Fog in November'


I'll be in gnawing off my own legs for sustenance in a snow drift somewhere in Aberdeenshire by the time you read this.  

*Opens door, blizzard swirls in*  "I could be some time..."


More November poems at gardendigest.com

9 comments:

  1. There's a faint dusting of white here today. the sun bouncing off it adds an extra sparkle to the world.

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  2. More frost here, too. Hope you've taken a flask of cocoa with you!

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  3. 11:33 - just stopped at a cafe in the Cairngorms (free internet!) - quite snowy and bright up here, windscreen wash freezes when applied. Lots of layers, blankets & provisions... it gets worse from here!

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  4. There's a Simon Armitage poem called 'November' which is about taking an old lady to a nursing home to die. It's a great poem. Do you know it?

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  5. They aren't too fond of Novemember! I'm trying to think of some good aspects...hmm.

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  6. No, Vember, please don't hurry,
    Or else I shall be vexed;
    For there's December next
    And then the Janu-worry.

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  7. Ah ha but December be round the corner. Does Tom Waits celebrate Christmas? He would make a superb shopping-mall Santa.

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  8. If this makes November seem bad, who knew how bad it could really get. It just took me 32 hours to get back from Morayshire - don't even ask... oh, you didn't.

    Fran - I didn't know November by Simon Armitage, but thanks for alerting me to it.

    penandpaints - nope! you got me there.

    Philip - love it! 8-D

    dominic - hello & welcome! Indeed he does - well, sort of - with 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Indianapolis'. He'd be a Bad Santa.

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  9. Haha I shall savour this in work tomorrow as my internet is terminally slow at home! Perhaps not as slow as your return journey though *ba boom*

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