"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.