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Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

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True Death or Nature's 'Coverup'? opus 695

16 November 2025 0925 Hours Botany, Biology, Poetry, Science
'The death of summer's life is manifested
In autumn's final magnificence.'

What I recently composed, poetically,
Sounds nice and superficially accurate,
But those trees with all their autumnal colors
Have not died--just the leaves--
The trees are resting for another season.
Perennial grasses still live beneath the soil's surface.
Although the Annuals' form which dies from crown to root--
Their broods of summer-seed offspring lie tucked in the duff,
Waiting for the catalyst of the Spring-sun's rays of warmth.  
The Conifer remains green, but with reduced life-activity,
Thus, deceptively alive, but resting, 
As its deciduous cousins openly exhibit.
So, as so explained, to the novice and uninformed,
What appears dead is just survival during an adverse time period,
As we also must rest to compose ourselves during a time of stress.