"First Leaf Fall"

by Katherine L. Gordon

An Impact of Butterflies (pg 38)

Katherine L. Gordon is a Canadian poet that lives by the Eramosa River, located near Guelph Ontario. Her writing is inspired by nature. This poem was published in October 1997 and correlates with nature, the outdoors, and most importantly the best season of all, Fall. The imagery of fall is created when she says;

Green woods that knew our love in summer

Shrivelled, at the sense-shattering sound

These few lines created an image in my head of a cool day when the bright leaves are falling but this poem has a much deeper meaning. It appears to me that this poem is more about heartbreak than it is about autumn. I noticed this when I read over the lines ahead because it speaks of how someones love has shrivelled, similar to the leaves in the fall time. Another line that indicated this was;

Last night the javelin-tossed the speech of farewell

A line that stood out to me is;

There is a sword-chill in your glance

This was the opening line of the poem and opens the theme of romance. To me, this means that the person's glance was like a sword, indicating that there was possibly a heartbreak and seeing the person cuts deep like a sword does. 

I enjoyed this poem at first because I was under the impression that it was about fall, however there was a much deeper meaning to it which made it a little more confusing. I like that the author used imagery, like autumn leaves, that describes a heartbreak in a unique way.

The Right To Vote

In my opinion, the voting age should not be lowered to 16. My reasoning behind this is solely the fact that children and teenagers are not educated enough on politics in their life to vote at 16 years of age. Personally, I don't even think I will feel ready to vote when I am 18. At 16 years of age, we are not mature enough or educated enough to make such a mature decision. I think that the voting age should be 18 at the very least.

Personal Growth

Curiosity, empathy, and creativity are traits that I possess in life. Curiosity and creativity are demonstrated in my life because I question many things. I am somebody that wonders about life in general, and I try to think of ways to make the world a better place, past the point of just thinking but physically engaging in doing so. I show empathy in that I always think of others and put myself in their position to really know what it feels like. Some skills I should work on are taking initiative and improving on multi-disiplinary thinking.