Earlier this fall when I was at the marsh, I spied a spider, peering from a web constructed in the whirl of a milkweed leave. My pictures didn’t turn out, but I’ve thought about that spider again and again: There was something about it, its web, and it’s watchful stance. It seemed poised at the edge of advance and retreat. I could relate only too well.
Considering the spider
What does Spider think
as it poises itself there?
Is it rapt at fall’s advance,
at the golden autumn air?
Or does it sense its coming end…
the frailness of its lair?
©Molly Hogan
This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Karen Edmisten at her blog.
PS Here are a couple of other spiders I did manage to “capture” early this fall.
Nix the comfort zone 
I can just imagine your spider watching you with all eight eyes and trying to decide whether to advance or retreat! So interesting to ponder what animals/insects/arachnids might be thinking.
LikeLike
Spider always appear to be poised ready to launch or pounce. They are quite intriguing. Molly, your poem alludes to this quite clearly as you ponder spider thoughts.
LikeLike
Love this. And I’m always amazed at spider pictures. Love this line: “Is it rapt at fall’s advance” So intriguing.
LikeLike
Now you’ve got me pondering…does a spider’s one year of life feel to it as long as my decades feel to me? What would it be like to experience the seasons just once? Or is there something in a spider’s DNA that ties it more closely to past and future generations, giving it a different kind of long view of its place in the scheme of things? Or does it know its place in the scheme of things as just one web in one corner of one garden or marsh? Hmm…
LikeLike
Ooooh, beautiful, Molly. I love watching spiders too, especially these orb weavers with their gorgeous webs. I can’t say I’ll miss so many of those webs every time we step on the porch, but I get a little wistful, too, when their absence is felt as fall moves on.
LikeLike
I love your speculation but this spider may be shy. I’ve had quite a few sneak in to my home, their autumn stance. I carry them out gently but know they’ll try again. I love how beautifully you managed the rhyming, Molly and the clear voice!
LikeLike
Molly, clever poem, and I am struck with the power of your seeing and photographing the spider and being touched by it somehow. Even when the photo didn’t turn out, you wrote this beauty. I like the there/air/lair rhymes.
LikeLike
Such gorgeous images, Molly. Your poem makes me wonder if you caught the spider “in the act” – just before it was about to … and then it thought better. Perhaps you saved it?
LikeLike
Your meditation on spiders is lovely, Molly. “Golden autumn’s air” often leaves me rapt, too.
LikeLike
Advance/retreat. Approach/avoid. Achieve/release. How long a year no longer seems.
LikeLike
I love picturing this moment of watchfulness and pondering on both sides — you and the spider, considering one another. Gorgeous photos too.
LikeLike
Getting in that spider’s head – intriguing!
LikeLike
Molly, your voice questions spider’s thoughts. I also like this line: at the golden autumn air. Even when the autumn air has a chill, it is fresh.
LikeLike