In each separate season's breadth,
Winter fall summer spring—
We may see designs of death,
Shadowed patterns, spectral things.

Violets seek the April earth,
Cluster on a rotting log.
Scythed petals curve against soft moss.
Sunlight sifts throught moldering wood.

Crimson circles, scarlet wheels
Roll through setting July days,
Sickle over summer fields,
Crush ripening wheat, cut bending staves.

Winds of autumn keenly slice
Across the branches of thinned trees:
November oak and elder, ash—
Amber sunsets limn this frieze.

Rings of mauve incise pale forms
As December twilight fades.
Iced-edged snowflakes, hissing swarms,
Cleave thick air the darkness makes.

Shadowed patterns, spectral things,
We may see designs of death:
Winter fall, summer spring—
In each season's separate breadth. (16)