Spring blossoms,
pink and translucent,
whisked away too soon
by cruel winds
but autumn blossoms
in gold and red,
a filter for noonday sun
give me joy.
“How beautiful the leaves grow old.
How full of light and color are their last days.”
~ John Burroughs, essayist
(1837 ~ 1921)
Each day offers a newness
that wasn’t there yesterday
for each day is special and precious.
Today it was the
beauty and bounty of autumn.
Messy and unkempt but
banquets for birds, bugs and bees.
My pull to tidy things up
flew away with the wind.
The untidy arrangements
that autumn brings to be left to
the natural world and homeowners.
“The bounty of nature is too little for the greedy person.”
~ Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher
Born: 4 BC; Died AD 65 (aged 67 - 68)
As autumn settles in
wasps are sluggish
yet still annoying;
fruit flies still hover
and are yet to feel
the cool of autumn,
playgrounds are quieter
as schools absorb our children,
golden leaves drift from elms,
yet to fill the corners and curbs
The air breathes sweater cool.
Calendar dictum remains in summer,
autumn equinox only days away
These cool days prepare the world
for the beauty of real autumn.
“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.”
~ Oscar Wilde
This a tough one
this winter of ice and snow
and rain and ice and snow
temperatures dip and dive
to really, really cold and
climb slowly to just cold.
I have no complaints though
because I know
it is only temporary.
As temporary as clouds scudding across the sky;
as the grass grows and then fades away til next spring;
as the wind that is blustery and bossy one day
and next is a mere pussy cat purring
through the hair on my head.
So this tough one of winter will pass,
the excitement of spring and summer
spread dandelion umbrellas and the fluff of poplars,
while we say that
the rain in spring time is too much or not enough;
the sun in summer is too hot or too bright.
the leaves in autumn are falling too soon
So, I say, weather is just a tough one ~ but then so am I.
“At the end of the day, we can endure much more that we think we can.”
~ Frida Kahlo, artist
Brilliant fuschia peonies
crowned this bush at bloom time.
Now slender leaves display
their own beauty before
the fade and sleep of autumn.
“Colours make nature pulsate with life.”
~ Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover
Thoughts
like crisped leaves
rustling along the sidewalks
at the beck and call
of the wind or my booted feet.
~ the red gold crunch of autumn.
“Anyone who things fallen leaves are dead
has never watched them dancing on a windy day.”
~ Shira Tamir
On a grey day
when the wind is low
and the air is cool
there is always time
to pause and notice
dark purple berries surrounded
by autumn gold and green .
“This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803~ 1882)
bread pudding
simple
cinnamon spicy
delicious
“The proof of the pudding is the eating.”
~ Miguel de Cervantes
on a bench far from the bell towers, the air silent save for
the raucous calling of crows
to interrupt this peaceful Sunday morn; crunching leaves, dry cracked earth,
squirrels scampered, a backyard barbecue grilled juicy hamburgers.
a woman played with her child on bright blue and red swings. I imagined
the tolling of the bells -
their music drifting into the sky,
settling over the city in peace and calm.
“For bells are the voice of the church;
They have tones that touch and search
the hearts of young and old.”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
the rusty leaf hung suspended
~ caught in a hammock
of fine silk webbing
across the side of an old elm.
an industrious spider’s lunch
or the web's autumn decor ?
“The difference between utility and utility plus beauty
is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web."
~ Edwin Way Teale, naturalist
(1899 - 1980)
