Woodland path

A path through woods
preparing for autumn.
Yellow leaves and brown,
flutter down from the sky,
through branching canopies,
gathering on the forest floor.

Sunlight sprinkles warmth
and golden shadows,
across leaves, ants and dirt.

Smell the earth
from deep within
leaves compressed
into the trail between trees,
that are sharp and clear,
trunks and bark illumined
in that same light,
undulating ceaselessly
like waves in the wind.

To the left,
and down the high bank,
a creek flowing swiftly
over logs and past white sandbars,
it’s sound musical and sweet.
There in the stillness
from late summer,
butterflies,
seeking flowers,
peaceful, delightful creatures,
flowering wings under white clouds
traveling east.

The trail winds along this creek,
around each bend gradually,
seemingly no end,
each turn leading to more mystery,
until I am as one with my surroundings —
the leafy crunch
and rustling sound
of fallen leaves.
Sweat cools my face
in a breeze that gently caresses me.

I continue until the time comes
to retrace my steps.
I return the way I came,
only nothing is the same.
Everything is changed
as I make my way home.
In Autumn.

Autumn was always my favorite season. The air felt crisper, cleaner, and it seemed my mind was quicker (no doubt because school started). I want those cleansing breezes today.

Nothing is the same…Summer changing into Autumn! I usually feel like summer fades away slowly, from green colors to a brightness of gold yellow and red. Time to enjoy hikes through woods and moorland. This time,maybe because of the sadness that came over our world two weeks ago, autumn doesn’t look the same to me. Maybe it is only in my mind but now things look as if we got a sad fifth season!

Yes, the path now bears the imprint of your passing by. And you are changed by your time spent there. I think trees are one of my favorite things…stately and proud, bent but unbroken, bridges between the heavens and earth, no two the same, shaped by desire to reach the sky and the chance placement of a seed. Oh oh, I am getting carried away. Autumn will soon bronze them. I enjoyed your walk

Sense data puts us there, and of course we must everywhere go and then return as different people…even through Autumn’s glory…isn’t it wonderful to see how these poems you’re posting are appreciated?

I have to agree with the sad note of Edelweiss. We’ve lost so much, early in this season, I’m not sure that I’ll ever find September beautiful again. But I’m so happy for you that you have the ability to find and recreate some natural peace. It brings tears to my eyes, but then again, almost everything does lately. I really miss something. Something indefinable. More than home. [Jude Alone]A4464

We were thinking along the same lines only you say it so pretty :o) I have to be different from the above note leavers. I will not allow anyone or anything to take away my pleasure of the season. I intend to enjoy this fall to the max as who knows what our world will be like this time next year? Sugar Magnolia (nsi)

very beautiful.

woodland path… walking among the leaves in all colours, svusj, svusj. Dry, crooked leaves. Looking up, no leaves are hiding the sky, the branches cut the sky in several parts and pieces. And the sky is dark blue and high. I’m walking just behind you my friend

yes, everything has changed…yet the falling leaves and fluttering butterfly hear only the grander change of season…

For a time I hated Autumn…all of the loveliness of summer dies with Autumn. The browns golds reds and olive greens signified loss and endings. And so it does…but it’s beautiful to me now, as is your poem. I can hear you crunching down the path and see the undulating sunlight through the trees on your wooded way to Autumn. Thank you.

What beauty you instill with your words, my friend. Such a sense of warmth and feeling and wonder. Each season is so special is it not?

Your poem is musical & sweet and thanks for bringing me into your surroundings. Change can be grand and shocking and sudden, or slight and subtle and dreamlike. The latter type of change, to me, often feels more serene and soft and nurturing…

RYN: Thanks for the kind words. I try not to rant about work, but that day was exceptional!!I have to agree with Sugar Magnolia in your notes. I feel so horrible about all that has happened in the past few weeks, but I’ll be damned if it is going to totally change my life and perspective. If anything it makes me hunt harder for the good in the world. It’s out there.

P.S. I almost forgot, I ordered the book you reccomended, “Southern Cultures”. Along with it I also got “Whistling Dixie”, and an old favorite, “The Southern Belle Primer.” Another thing I like about Fall is the longer nights, I don’t feel guilty about sitting back in the Morris Chair with a good book, while the chilly wind is blowing outside. Think I’ll go do that now! Later my friend.. [brickpav

Willy & Wilma

October 2, 2001

Very nice Autumny poem, Oswego. My favorite seasons are Fall and Spring, comfortably located between the heat of Summer and the cold of Winter

adrift

Walking with you, remembering my youthful days in New England when Autumn colored my days and tree lined paths became my constant companions. I can still smell the pines as my feet crunch upon rust colored needles and golden rays of light dance through lacey boughs. Thank you again, dear Oswego~

Beautiful. My kind of walk!

Edelweis

October 10, 2002

I came here tonight to read more than one of your entries, dear friend, but I think this poem is too beautiful to mix it with the treasures of the next entry! You walk with your soul and that is so inspiring. Your internal horizon stretches with your externel one! Many poets have also been great walkers…you know that! W.A.Mathieu says: “Dancers need music, but walkers are their own music!”

Walking opens us up. It feeds us, image by image! When we are able to hear nature’s music, we find that everything on earth contributes to its harmony. I like this poem very much, and I read it at the right time…the beginning of a golden fall. Thank you! Have a peaceful evening my friend!