Ode To A Sparrow

I watch you daily
as you sing your plaintive song
and perch lightly upon your loss--
I wish I could help you,
little sparrow so light, but
my own wings were clipped
once before I even left the egg
and daily I must learn to fly…

Ode To My Red Maple

She lives just outside
my bedroom window,
ever loyal, ever faithful--
always in the same spot,
day after day,
season after season--
she’s there to give
comfort, even joy,
especially in November,
the sloughing month
when the leaves fall
in sad splendor, with
grace—but my tree,
my Japanese Maple,
holds out, turns scarlet
with the blood of life,
its leaves dancing
little dances of love
in the autumnal winds
as though it were
laughing at death….

The Season Of Death And Life

Nowhere in the wide world
Is death so stunning,
So beautiful as in our
Wooded lands—a plethora
Of colors and shades
As dying leaves clutch
Desperate to their trees
Until they can no more. 

Here and there
A Japanese Maple
Seems to burst over-
Night into volcanic flame,
the leaves dripping a
Molten red of lava
As the lowering sun
Streaks through
Its myriad spires. 

And we walk like kings
On thick carpets of gold,
Made keener of life
By the sharp cool air,
A temp somewhere
Between the deep,
Deep heat of birth
And a desolated
Frozen death. 

For some of us,
Autumn is sadness
Personified: presage
Of one’s finality. 

For others, ‘tis a
Season of glory,
Death’s door
Adorned.

Author’s Biography

Nolo Segundo is the pen name of a retired teacher [America, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia] who in his 8th decade became a published poet in over 220 literary journals in 18 countries on 4 continents. Cyberwit.net has published 3 collections in paperback: 'The Enormity of Existence'; 'Of Ether and Earth'; and 'Soul Songs'. These titles attest to the awareness he gained 53 years ago when he had an NDE while nearly drowning: of an endless consciousness; and so for over half a century he has seen 'life' as only a long dream shared by billions, with birth a falling asleep and death an awakening.