It’s Poetry Friday!
Last week I talked about attending the wonderful Poetry Palooza at Highlights. The Highlights Foundation Retreat Center is nestled in the Pocono Mountains in northeastern PA. Beautiful in any season, the drive through the mountains in autumn is especially picturesque. Words and images and ideas swirled through my head as I drove home at the conclusion of the workshop when my thoughts suddenly turned to a treasured sweater I once owned. The next day those thoughts demanded to be a poem.
As I Drive Through the Mountains in Autumn
I travel in memories
of a sweater I once wore
in shades of gold and russet and green
like autumn maples and oaks—
my tree sweater,
my leaf sweater.
I wore it often on crisp autumn days,
but it seemed out of place
in any other season.
After Thanksgiving
I would tuck that sweater
in the back of my closet.
There it would languish,
lost in the mulberries of winter,
the pastels of spring,
awaiting its turn once again.
Over the years I chose it less often,
opting for updated styles,
subtler patterns perhaps.
Then one year I didn’t wear it at all,
nor the next,
nor the next—
so I passed it on.
I remember that sweater
as I drive through the mountains,
wondering if maybe somewhere
someone is greeting a crisp autumn day
in a sweater of gold and russet and green—
my tree sweater,
my leaf sweater.
Draft,2025RoseCappelli
Photo courtesy of Google images.
Carol Labuzzetta has the round up today at The Apples in My Orchard. Be sure to stop by for lots of poetry goodness, and thanks for reading.
Imagine the Possibilities 
What a sweet memory! What a GORGEOUS photo!
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Thanks, Mary Lee. I can only take credit for the poem. The photo is from Google images (I’ll add that on the blog)
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Those thoughts turned into a wonderful poem, Rose! I like its hopeful ending, and think of the quote Tabatha shared today about reciprocity. Passing along goodness, in the form of a poem or a favorite sweater, is an act of generosity.
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Thank you for that, Susan. You warmed my heart.
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What a lovely poem, Rose!! And such sweet memories of autumn days wearing that favorite sweater. I like the ending too, of passing it on, wondering about the next wearer of the tree sweater, the leaf sweater . . .
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Thank you!
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Rose!!!! I love your sweater poem! There is something about the memory of beloved clothes that stays with us…especially love your opening, “I travel in memories…” Gorgeous!
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Thanks, Mona!
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Rose, I love the colors and memories this sweater-poem conjures. It’s a beautiful story-telling and the echo at the end is perfect.
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I seem to use the echo a lot in the poems I write. Maybe what you might call part of my fingerprint, along with alliteration (which there is not much of in this poem). It was quite a different drive this past Tuesday!
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Oh, I really love this sweater memory poem, Rose. It offers so much to the reader – you wearing it, tucking it away, not wearing it, and wondering who is wearing it now. Lovely! I still have two wool sweaters from my Bermudian honeymoon in 1987! They have been tucked away for years…waiting for me to make mittens from them! Thanks.
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Rose, I love this poem so much! Your use of metaphor to describe the colors and how you name the sweater, my tree sweater, my leaf sweater, and repeat it at the end. I am totally drawn into your memory.
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I’m smiling so big! I have a leaf sweater that I love and I just can’t part with it…despite the fact that it’s a couple decades old. I love, “mulberries of winter” and all the ways that the sweater holds you in Autumn. A wonderful, wonderful poem.
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Thanks, Linda. Nice to see you at Jone’s writing salon this morning.
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Rose, I love the wistfulness of this and your relationship with that beloved sweater — and Iove that you wish it and its current owner renewed life, and a happy life together. 🙂
That photo is gorgeous too!
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Rose, what a delightful sweater and an even better poem about it. Your words really help us imagine the sweater. I love the idea of remembering old favorites through a poem. What a great way to store up memories, instead of keeping the item that you instead could pass on to someone else. So sweet!
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What a wonderful poem! I love how it captures the sweater and the seasons of your life with it, and then cycles on to someone new. Great structure!
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Thanks!
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