Kicking the Leaves, Donald Hall, 1978

The poetry book that I return to year after year was written by Hall as he transitioned from living in Ann Arbor, a University of Michigan professor recently divorced with two teen aged children, to a free lance poet and writer living in the New Hampshire farm house of his great grandparents with his new wife, the young poet, Jane Kenyon.  Time, death, history, roots, food, change are all themes in this wonderful collection which ties the falling leaves of an Ann Arbor fall with those of the New Hampshire hills where horses, cows, sheep, and his grandparents are gone while Kearsarge and Ragged Mountains will always remain.  Wonderful phrases and even more wonderful crystal clear memories over his 46 years characterize Hall as a poet of nature, New England, and time.  My favorite!