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Robert Lindner
I enjoyed the reunion and was happy to meet
All those who I managed to speak to and I
Was pleased to hear from those who like my poems.
It's after midnight on the 23rd of Sepetember and the first day of fall.
So it's time for an autumn song and for a poem.
The Fall Equinox
“The falling leaves drift by the window,
The autumn leaves of red and gold.
I see your lips, the summer kisses,
The sun-burned hands, I used to hold.
Since you went away the days grow long.
And soon I'll hear old winter's song.
But I miss you most of all my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.”
Autumn Leaves as sung by Nat King Cole
The equinox of fall is here. When fall
Begins with equal times of night and sun.
Still for the leaves, it’s a chance to show all
Their colors. Astronomic fall’s begun.
Since September’s end to summer is here,
Warmer temperatures will give way to
Cooler days and the cold that ends each year
Returns. But the four seasons aren’t new.
And the third one has just begun. Autumn’s
Returned to get us ready for the cold
Before we reach New Year when winter comes.
Now it’s just the start of fall of the old
Year. The leaves are just beginning to change
From green to yellow or to red or brown.
Then comes the time when Halloween brings strange
Characters in costumes to every town.
But it’s still just the end of September,
And Halloween is still a month away.
Today, we may sing “try to remember”
Or tomorrow’s just another day.
But it will have more night time than daylight
That defines astronomic autumn or
Winter days that begin on solstice night
And grow longer until spring will bring more
Day than night when the spring will have begun.
But today earth’s equatorial plane
Will face toward the center of the sun,
As the poles reverse and South Pole will gain
Sun, as North Pole loses sun till there’ll be
None and then the sun won’t rise there for some
Weeks in December and January.
But for now the fall equinox has come.
Though it’s still not quite twelve hours of light
And twelve hours of night. Since Earth’s rotation
And its orbit round the sun are not quite
Unchanging since there is perturbation
Of both by other planets and the moon.
They pull on earth with their gravitation,
So that on the equinox, the earth’s noon
Won’t be at midday since the location
Of sunsets and rises are dependent
On the viewer’s point of observation
But still today the earth’s equator went
North, past the sun’s zero declination,
Which is the definition of the sun’s
Equinox which begins the fall and spring
According to astronomy. Earth runs
Slower in fall so September morning
On the twenty-third day, as earth takes
Its elliptical path around the sun.
Earth’s farther from the sun in fall which makes
It take longer to reach where fall’s begun
Than to get to the equinox of spring,
Counting the days from the solstices to
The equinoxes, as earth keeps changing
The face it shows the sun. Just as I do
When morning comes each day and I awake
To see what the world has in store for me
It will be fall’s beginning, and I’ll make
A poem of that with astronomy
As my muse. I could have chosen “Autumn
Leaves,” a song written long ago, if my
Life is long enough. Because I would come
Into this world, this earth, and see the sky,
One morning, the year after the song was
Composed in French for the French film called “Gates
Of the Night.” Both of us were born because
War ended. But it’s today and both dates
Are long past. And early this morning, we
Passed from summer to fall, when sun’s center
Passed earth’s equator. But the melody
Of “Autumn Leaves” lingers, as we enter
The fall season, astronomically,
Speaking of earth’s orbit and rotation
Rather than somewhat romantically,
With love as the source of gravitation.
Something that can matter more than matter,
Which is gravitation’s actual source.
Still the universe comes from the latter
Since it is mass that created the force
That Galileo and Newton brought to
Bear on every other mass. As earth’s mass
Keeps us from flying away which we’d do
Without it. Still you can fall on your ass
Because of it. Speaking of fall, this one
Has just begun, astronomically,
So let’s return to fall, where earth and sun
Leave ass in its anatomically
Determined location, which is the rear,
And pass through the equinox to begin
The autumn season, as they do each year,
And have done throughout the times we’ve lived in.
And through all of human observation,
Though there’s always been some perturbation
The seasons have not changed. Still location,
Will affect the weather’s variation
In winter, spring, summer, and fall, as sun
And earth change their relative position
And we’ll get darker since our fall’s begun.
Then north gets longer nights till solstice’s done.
When winter comes and we move toward spring.
But overnight in the early morning
The earth’s orbit will define its crawling
Into fall where “Autumn Leaves” are falling.
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