Summer to Autumn / Glenn Ward Dresbach

Summer to Autumn 

My leaves of green you will turn to gold and crimson, 
My ripened fruits you will give their fullest hue, 
And my scattered birds will flock to you at parting — 
But all I give in turn will be taken from you. 

Your gold and crimson leaves will be banners fallen, 
Your flushed fruits will be scattered on the ground, 
And, at the last, the birds will hasten southward 
And leave you winds and many a lonely sound. 

We dream the dream and never reach completion 
Within ourselves, then pass in things we give . . . 
Always the void of winter wraps in silence 
Things that in spite of winter wait and live. 

~~
Glenn Ward Dresbach (1889-1968)
from In Colors of the West, 1922

[Poem is in the public domain in  Canada and the United States]

Glenn Ward Dresbach biography