Haiku for Autumn

Leaves fall -- But guess what,
That symbolizes your life.
DID I BLOW YOUR MIND??

I composed that philosophical, seasonably appropriate gem last night at the Portland Japanese Garden's Moonviewing event, after a bilingual haiku reading, a brief introduction to the subtleties of the form (always note the season), and an invitation to the guests to write poems of their own. I didn't write mine on a little card and hand it in, though, since Kyle and I spent our time not actually viewing the moon (lovely, luminescent through partial cloudiness) watching the koto player or the quietly hypnotic tea ceremony demonstration in the tea house, or taking the rare chance to walk around the garden's grounds after dark, especially late when most of the other visitors had left. It's a really lovely garden; I find I have a thing for thoughtfully created spaces. (See also, in a possibly odd association, the City Museum in St. Louis.)

At any rate, it's the first day of fall, a chilly and sporadically drizzly one in Portland, just like the summer this year. Our building even had a fire drill this afternoon so we desk jockeys could get outside and really experience the day firsthand. But it's a good one, all in all, and Kyle and I are planning some quick car-camping in a farther-east, probably sunnier section of Oregon. No call for contemplating, in 5/7/5 syllables, the soft rolling of the mortality odometer.