By: Robert Burton

As the cool autumn air begins to arrive in Hong Kong I want to wish all of our students and families a very happy new season and to share a writing milestone with you. I am proud to announce the publication of my own autumn poems as part of the Earthbound Poetry Series: Vol. 5, No. 11. 

The poems are meaningful to me because they are born from a chapter shared with my family during my dad’s illness. He enjoyed looking at the autumn trees from his window and would describe them to us – sometimes on a perfectly calm afternoon, sometimes on a fiercely windy day, or during quiet moments when the leaves were on the verge of movement or perhaps already shifting just out of sight. 

Seeing that my dad connected deeply with the view, my mum suggested that I should write about the trees and some of my dad’s thoughts. I took my mum’s advice and every day I would write a fragment of poetry based on what my dad had observed. Soon these reflections evolved into a series of short poems through which I realised that the trees represented something positive about change and the continuation of nature and new life.  

These are my favourite poems because I wrote them for my dad and I know that he was happy to see them in print. As a teacher I hope that the poems can serve as a gentle spark for my students at the centre. I want to encourage our young learners to slow down, enjoy meaningful time with their families, and look closely at the world around them. Autumn is a season full of transition, and I hope it inspires our students to pick up a pen and discover the joy of writing their own seasonal poems.