11/8/14

Words Today by Wiliam Stafford

November has been kind so far this year. It has been filled with brilliant turning leaves, afternoons filled with warm sunshine, a hidden pumpkin, and late roses still blooming. Until I reread this poem today, I never thought about the sounds of November. Tomorrow I will listen.

Assurance

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or the silence after lightening before it says
its names- and then the clouds' wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles- you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head-
that’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.

by William Stafford, from Smoke’s Way, 1983

11/5/14

Gratitude

Whether it is an image of a simple bouquet,

a favorite place of solitude,

beautiful surroundings,

or home,

my photos fill me with gratitude,

11/4/14

It's A Cat's Life

Some days I would just like to be a cat.

Their lives are so simple and relaxed. That sounds so good today.

11/3/14

Gathering Leaves

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?

Robert Frost

11/2/14

Observation of Leaves

One of the reasons I love autumn immensely is because of the leaves. I could spend a whole day just observing and photographing changing and falling and fallen leaves. These were all taken from different locations, yet they create a mosaic of stunning beauty.