Metric Figure by William Carlos Williams

There is a bird in the poplars!
It is the sun!
The leaves are little yellow fish
swimming in the river.
The bird skims above them,
day is on his wings.
Phoebus!
It is he that is making
the great gleam among the poplars!
It is his singing
outshines the noise
of leaves clashing in the wind. 

I read "Metric Figure" yesterday, and given the time of year, I could not escape the image of leaves as “little yellow fish swimming.”  The image followed me as I helped my daughter ride her bike.  The sidewalk was the ocean floor.  The fish swam above us.  Later, I yielded my car to a school of leaves that hurried across the street.  And in this morning's storm, the tails of the wet leaves glided up and down in blustery perfection; the imagery of the fish sharpened by the rain.