Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #26,

In this episode, Jen of Blog It Or Lose It tells us -

Rather than elaborate upon the poem, I’d like to know what the poem means to *you*.  

Can you envision the stars, the brown grass at the trees' feet, the liberation of being "leafless"? 

What thoughts come to mind when *you* read the poem? 

                    LEAVES
           By Sarah Teasdale

ONE by one, like leaves from a tree,
All my faiths have forsaken me;
But the stars above my head
Burn in white and delicate red,
And beneath my feet the earth
Brings the sturdy grass to birth.
I who was content to be
But a silken-singing tree,
But a rustle of delight
In the wistful heart of night,
I have lost the leaves that knew
Touch of rain and weight of dew.
Blinded by a leafy crown
I looked neither up nor down -
But the little leaves that die
Have left me room to see the sky;
Now for the first time I know
Stars above and earth below. 

 ~~::~~

Instead of literal stars and grass, what I see in this poem is someone coming to an epiphany - shedding ideas and concepts that are comfortable, sheltering and familiar, but blind one to the actual realities of life.

This could be getting over a love-is-blind fascination and seeing the object of one's affection as a real person with perhaps some stellar attributes, but also feet of clay.  Or it could be the death of love.

It could be the escape from a religious cult.

It could be zen enlightenment.

It could be loosing the blinders of hide-bound political ideology to see the consequences of bad policy.

In any event, what this poem means to me is coming to a new realization about some aspect of life in the real world that results from shedding whatever was binding and blinding one.

in that stark moment

of pain loss and confusion

suddenly I saw 

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #26