STELLAR JAYS return at SUNSET...

AUTUMN SUNSET by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) (excerpts)

The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible, with all the glory and splendour...

where there are solitary wings gilded by it, or some brook in the midst of the marsh...

just beginning to meander, winding slowly round a decaying stump.

We walked in so pure and bright a light, gilding the withered grass and leaves,

so softly and serenely bright...

I had never bathed in such a golden flood, without a ripple or a murmur to it.

Every wood and rising ground gleamed like a boundary of Elysium,

and the sun on our backs seemed like a gentle herdsman...

...driving us home at evening.

So we saunter toward the Holy Land,

one day the sun shall shine more brightly...

...shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts,

and light up our whole lives,

a great awakening light,

as warm and serene... 

and golden...

.... in autumn.

Photographs 2026

 

SOMETHING TOLD...

SOMETHING TOLD THE WILD GEESE 

by Rachel Field ( 1894-1934) From her collection "Branches Green" published in 1934

(This is my favourite Fall poem...)

Something told the wild geese

it was time to go...

Though the fields lay golden

Something whispered- "Snow"

Leaves were green and stirring,

Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers

Something cautioned -"Frost"

All the sagging orchards

Steamed with amber spice

But each wild breast stiffened

At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese

It was time to fly.

Summer sun was on their wings,

Winter in their cry...

Photographs 2026 (Poem is in the public domain)

 

IN THE COUNTRY...

MNEMOSYNE by Trumbull Stickney ( 1874-1904) He was an American poet and scholar, graduating with honours from Harvard in 1895. Published Dramatic Verses in 1902 and died too young,in 1904.

"Mnemosyne" means "remembrance" and memory ( originally the name of the Greek goddess who was mother of the Muses in mythology. Mnemosyne (memory) was always important in Greek storytelling)

It's autumn in the country I remember

How warm a wind blew here about the ways! And shadows on the hillside lay to slumber

During the long sun-sweetened summer-days

It's cold abroad the country I remember.

The swallows veering skimmed the golden grain at midday with a wing aslant and limber:

And yellow cattle browsed upon the plain...

It's empty down the country I remember

I had a sister lovely in my sight: her hair was dark, her eyes were very sombre;

We sang together in the woods at night.

It's lonely in the country I remember.

The babble of our children fills my ears, and on our hearth I stare at the perished ember to flames that show all starry thru my tears.

It's dark about the country I remember

There are the mountains where I lived. The path is slushed with cattle-tracks and fallen timber;

The stumps are twisted by the tempests' wrath.

But that I knew these places are my own, I'd ask how came such wretchedness to cumber the earth, and I to people it alone.

It rains across the country I remember...

Photographs 2026 Mnemosyne is in the public domain. All works published before Jan 1 1931 come under this designation. This poem was written in 1902.