Q5

Text 5 — Poem
Analyse how Kooser shares insights about the experience of change.

Text 5 — Poem
A Letter in October
Dawn comes later and later now,
and I, who only a month ago
could sit with coffee every morning
watching the light walk down the hill
to the edge of the pond and place
a doe there, shyly drinking,
then see the light step out upon
the water, sowing reflections
to either side — a garden
of trees that grew as if by magic —
now see no more than my face,
mirrored by darkness, pale and odd,
startled by time. While I slept,
night in its thick winter jacket
bridled the doe with a twist
of wet leaves and led her away,
then brought its black horse with harness
that creaked like a cricket, and turned
the water garden under. I woke,
and at the waiting window found
the curtains open to my face;
beyond me, darkness. And I,
who only wished to keep looking out,
must now keep looking in.
TED KOOSER
Republished with permission of University Pittsburgh Press