Do you get the feeling

Each September

That this is a time

When you should

Change

Your self

And urgently too

Because

This feeling

Only comes

Once in a year?

Do you glean

September’s special sense

That life

Is further

Beyond reach

Than you can usually see?

Do you fear

The surreptitiously

Shifting season

Might just be leaving

You behind?

And does September

Not seem to bring

All your Septembers

Past and future

Along with it

Along with the romantic notion

That aside from

Each responsibility

And every rule

You are no more commanded

And no more in demand

Than those dry leaves

There swirled in a gust

As together you turn

A strangely familiar

Corner in the year

Do you believe that

If September keeps its promises

Then you must surely keep

An appointment with yourself

If only a brief memo

In a personal hand

That says

‘How little you really change

But allowing for change

And for your self

To be changed

Is the most

And the best

You can do’