October

One of my favorite Robert Frost poems, and one of the few that I've memorized, always comes to mind at this time of year. His vivid writing and gentle rhythm seems not to capture the array of changes and shifts in the landscape in early autumn, but rather to liberate the physical and spiritual senses to attend to the sublime transformation in both the external and the internal environments.

"October"

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost–

For the grapes' sake along the wall.

– Robert Frost

The Berkshires

Near North Adams MA