THOUGHTS

Autumn’s Brilliance

Four poems in celebration of fall

Autumn’s Brilliance

Every year autumn’s brilliance catches me by surprise — trees ablaze in fiery and provocative hues. Air that was just now hot and muggy, in a swift pass of days grows breezy and cool.

Fall is the season for sweaters and slippers and sipping tea. Hands seek warmth in pockets. Bare arms take refuge in sleeves.

The sun’s strength is mitigated by distance. It warms, but doesn’t overheat. Take a deep breath and be invigorated. Hear the satisfying crunch of fallen leaves beneath your feet.

As new colors cover the tree line, boots are donned and scarves are wrapped around necks. Frozen treats become less and less desired now that snowy days are on deck.

Hair that once hung heavy in humidity, flaps wildly in the wind. Even the sky changes color — more white has been mixed in.

Sunset presses earlier and earlier upon the day. Dawn comes fashionably late. Darkness expands to take more time. More of life is lived under an artificial light.

Autumn is a season of oscillations. It wears weather like two faces. Some days evoke memories of summer — bright and full of warmth. Others are harbingers of winter — biting cold and harsh.

Fall is a period of unique beauty — of depth and breadth and volatility. Trees surrender their greenery to new, yet temporary, hues. Leaves leave branches bald and barren. Blankets are returned to use.

Autumn is the season of the hearth — coming in and finding warmth. As a chill saturates the air and affects the lungs, thoughts turn to family and Thanksgiving, to going home, harvesting memories, and reaping love.

Falling

Falling leaves that have changed their color.

A softer sun tempering the temperature.

This season of so much visual change.

Summer over and winter not yet.

Trees seductively shedding their leaves.

Getting down to the essential things.

Baring their branches without shame.

Standing proud in their nakedness.

Breezes beginning to grow teeth for winter’s bite.

Temperate days, brisk nights.

Then some days that feel like summer

And make us wonder

If fall might be averted.

But gravity always has the last word.

So falling is inevitable.

An Easy Season to Love

Autumn is an easy season to love. She wraps the leaves of trees in striking colors. Leaves that fall like tinted confetti when their time is done. Falling at the urging of a breeze that may be chilled or warm.

Autumn is an easy season to love. To look upon a boulevard of branches and see a symphony of hues. Branches bearing leaves of red, green, orange, and yellow. Leaves awash with sunlight. The sun shining from a pristinely pale blue sky.

Autumn is an easy season to love. Inspiring the landscape to keep adopting new colors. Leaves swapping shades as if they’re showing off. An impressive display of nature’s art.

Autumn is an easy season to love. A time of thanksgiving and transition. A change in the air that invites us to get snug. To stand in temperate sunlight and be thankful for its warmth. A gratitude that grows larger the closer winter comes.

Autumn Falls

Fall has descended.

Her leaves are promiscuous with color.

Trees adorned in provocative hues

Are roused by the wind,

Shuddering and flirting with the sky’s blue.

It is the final act of autumn,

Casting off her verdant clothing.

Bare boughs stand unabashedly exposed,

Having already shed their foliage.

I love this season at dusk.

The setting sun illuminates

Likeminded shades in autumnal treetops.

There is visual resonance.

The twilight amplifies the colors.

November is both her decline and her peak.

Autumn falls into unpredictability.

Sometimes rain, sometimes brisk, sometimes sunny.

This is fall’s denouement,

Autumn’s seasonal release.

While winter waits impatiently in the wings,

Making us shiver before she comes.

Whispering her cold intentions through the wind,

She promises to chill,

She alludes to frost.

More of Aabye-Gayle’s poetry:

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