One Day of Autumn
.
One day of autumn
sun had uncongealed
the frost that clung
wherever shadows spread
their arctic greys among
October grass: mid-
field an oak still
held its foliage intact
but then began
releasing leaf by leaf
full half,
till like a startled
flock they scattered
on the wind: and one
more venturesome than all
the others shone far out
a moment in mid-air,
before it glittered off
and sheered into the dip
a stream ran through
to disappear with it.
................... Charles Tomlinson
......................... The Shaft (1978).