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Autumn
The Soul of Stillness ~ Tanka
Awash in silence
as the wind catches its breath
the soul of stillness
the lull between autumn gusts
where the leaves pause in their fall
The Fall
from verdant green
to flaming colors
no rainbow ever dreamed
but the trees dare
from flourishing fields
of growing grain
to shorn earth
of tawny stubble
the wheel turns
once more
the year
draws to a close
and the growing season
meets its maker
whirlwinds skitter
across the path
stirring more poignantly
whatever wistful nostalgia
might have blossomed
late before the frost
this perishing moment
too
is an eternity
First Hints of Fall
Though we are weeks away from the true beginning of Autumn and the change in weather, there are always foreshadowings that occur long before the season arrives.
The honking of Canada Geese from overhead – small family flocks, this year’s hatchlings, flying for the first time. Preparing for their long migration to come.
Acorns, (the Oak-Corn) falling to the ground, which everyone associates with Autumn, actually happens in late August each year, and has already begun.
Also in August, invariably to my recollection, we suddenly have a spat of very cool, fall-like weather, right in the midst of the heat of late summer. Which we just experienced these last two days.
And this cool spell casts a spell upon certain of the trees, coaxing them to scatter a few yellowed leaves upon the ground.
Thoreau said: “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”
We are awash in the constant flow. In the ticking of the clock. In the earth’s incremental journey around the sun. In the joy of watching children grow up. In the aging of our own bodies. And yet each moment speaks to us of eternity.
Autumn Lake ~ Day 44
gracefully the trees shed their summer cloaks
surrendering all outer life, to go deep within
as the dark nights lengthen, the season of frost settles
and the wind blows cold
while we don our winter coats
preserving our hot-blooded lives
yet still the dark and the cold and the wind
coax us to turn inward
deep into the roots of our being
Autumn Lake ~ Day 22
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Autumn at the Lake
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