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# A Long Walk to Autumn
- URL: https://www.yacubdavidsmith.com/a-long-walk-in-autumn/
- Published: 2026-10-17T16:20:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-18T21:13:18.000Z
- Author: yacub david smith
- Tags: A Long Walk to Autumn, Poetry

Light floods the valleys by Pontresina,  
slowly overturning the shadows,  
driving them into scattered patches  
beneath the trees, into low ravines  
where the sun has yet to find them.

The massive rock,  
a geological matrix,  
how you wear the fragile woods  
like a blanket woven  
in autumn colors,  
yellow, orange, the lingering green,  
how small we are walking here below.  
How small Dartmouth became,  
a model of buildings and lawns,  
of men and women  
all pretty in their time,  
and here life in all its  
raging complexity,  
the massive rock, like men and women,  
weathering slowly,  
without knowing what  
the years have made of them.  
  
My light tan skin merges  
with the yellowing woods,  
a cold breeze funnels through the valley,  
a place for dogs and their companions,  
young hounds left wild to run and play,  
for walkers, bikers, runners,  
a mother and her child,  
a young Italian family  
and their white poodle,  
couples speaking in hushed tones,  
others telling of people they know,  
the sound of gravel underfoot  
as we go,  
pushing ever forward  
beneath October's cooler sun,  
not yet twelve noon,  
the light itself cooled  
by streams of mountain air.

I look around.

Where do they come from?  
Do they sweep across the peaks  
and descend into the valley,  
carrying something of the heights  
we cannot see?

Where will they go—

Farther along the valley,  
Silvaplana offers no clue,  
neither does a yellowing birch.

They remain silent.  

Pontresina, Switzerland  
October 17, 2026