NOVEMBER REWARDS by Nannette Hoffman

In the fall, colors astound us with their special vibrancy…

Equally astounding to me are the forms of leaves grown old: each wrinkled shape becomes sublimely unique in contrast to those new leaves which all look alike. Their powerful effect enables them to creep into my poems. Each fall these shapes are beauty underfoot that we tend to ordinarily ignore. Perhaps you will join me, during this season of raking them up, to take a second look.

November Rewards

by Nannette Hoffman

The Oak let go

of a million leaves today

thickening carpet under

tired feet.

Whipped by heavy

downpours and the

North wind, only the

stubborn ones held

tight upon the branch.

Now sun bathes

naked limbs, glaring brightness

on tattered

offspring.

I search the piles

for that special leaf,

one with twists,

with textures, roughly

etched from elements,

veins reaching out

among darkening spots.

These scars are trophies

earned for having

borne and survived

nature’s careless

indiscretions.

Nannette Hoffman: Nannette was a fine artist, teacher and poet, who passed away on December 9, 2010 at the age of 81. She was a native of New York City and had lived in the D.C area for 40 years before moving to Virginia in 2002. Nannette received her B.A from Hofstra University, her M.A in English from Georgetown University, and was a Master Copyist of Fine Art at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. She loved children and had one son, two daughters and four grandchildren. It was Nannette’s passion to inspire others to nourish their creative spirits, and she spent much of her life doing just that. Nannette published two books of poems and drawings with Ellicott Press: The Palette and the Pen (1992) and  The Image and the Leaf (2001). 

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