Fall Again

Fall has arrived in both my mind and in my environs. The gold’s and oranges have emerged into a colorful display and then quickly let go of their brilliance in a singular moment of loss as they drop to the ground. A zephyr breeze is the usual pallbarer to their surface grave.

A week ago I had a clean green lawn. Today I have a mottled variegated patina of fluffy oak and maple leaves that festoon the ground canvas that used to be grass clear.

I live in an apple-growing region of New York State. I’ve already walked in an apple orchard and picked a succulent fruit to enjoy in its pristine freshness. There is nothing like it. The aroma of apples permeates the valleys and mountainsides of my region. If nothing else, it is the harbinger of fall.

Poetry is a perfect way to describe fall.

O fleeting, splendid bright, October’s dazzling light

Long hidden in the buds of birth below the green.

An ecstasy of eye’s ability to see

What nevermore and ever will again be seen.

Tiara wreaths of crimson reds and sienna.

Robes of rusted browns; ensigns tanned in saffron hue,

Waving standards of the oak, the birch and maple,

The ash and aspen, just before their leaf’s adieu.

Blowing in a pruning breeze, colors drop away,

Not to die but to decorate the frosted fall

And celebrate the shedding cloak of summer’s sheen

Before the dancing flakes of snow will white enthrall.

Colors are the chorus, the season’s change in sound.

Scarlet, a crispy snap, Jasmine’s much more frail;

Maroons rustle in the breath of a bouncing wind

And lingering greens help the harmonies prevail.

The leaves of fall, the garland crowns of wooded land

Attune to the life of man by the breaths we share.

The exhale of one, the inhale of the other,

A symbiotic natural grace within the air.

Keep thy palette bright, October, drop no more leaves

Least not until appreciation passes by

And then, the comfort of your flower quilt will warm

A winter day with thanks the way you beautify.