Flathead Lake, October
The eagle floats and glides,
circling the burnished aspen,
then takes the high pines
with a flash of underwing.
As surely as the eagle sails
toward the bay’s open curve,
as surely as he swoops and seizes
the struggling fish, pulling
it from an osprey’s beak;
so too, autumn descends,
to steal the glistening
summer from our open hands.
circling the burnished aspen,
then takes the high pines
with a flash of underwing.
As surely as the eagle sails
toward the bay’s open curve,
as surely as he swoops and seizes
the struggling fish, pulling
it from an osprey’s beak;
so too, autumn descends,
to steal the glistening
summer from our open hands.
Share this column
Disclaimer
We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2007 by Geraldine Connolly, from her most recent book of poems, Hand of the Wind, Iris Press, 2009. Reprinted by permission of Geraldine Connolly and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.