Autumn's Fire - A Poem

Autumn's Fire

As the harvest sun sets over painted trees,

for a short time summer's memory can return.

Fleeting moments before the darkness rules,

dusk's great forge sets the evening heavens to burn.

Tonight the fiery sky blazes out so strong,

Silhouetting brave flocks as away they fly.

A seasonal spectacle to take your breath away

when autumn's vivid flames colour land and sky.

Summer's fire was there for all to see and feel;

Bright flowers grew tall under her scorching gleam.

Early autumn grants summer's warmth a lofty echo

before it's he, alone, who reigns supreme.

Rosie Hill 2015 

Autumn

She arrives quietly, too shy to make much impression.  Her soft rain replenishes the parched summer soil and her gentle breezes cool the same burnt ground.  Beneath our feet the colour changes from brown dryness to verdant green as she breathes new life into the earth.  She treads gently in summer's wake leaving, at first, just a hint of her arrival; mist hanging silently in the valley, dew drenching silken cobwebs, a hint of something in the air that all disappear as the dawn rises with summer's still strong sun.

As time passes, she grows in confidence.  Soft rain builds to heavy downpours, gentle breezes strengthen to strong gusts and summer is sent scurrying away. Fruits not picked tumble to the ground to be gathered by animals, frantic to build their stores.  They know only too well that summer is fading and autumn's early benevolence will not last long. 

As if my magic, mushrooms spring from the damp soil overnight to stay but a day or two before melting back from whence they came. Green leaves turn a million shades of yellow, red and brown, crowning the trees in triumphant glory.  But, like the mushrooms, autumn will send them earthbound and their time left with with us is short, leaving bare branches to welcome winter.

As autumn finds her confidence the first frost chills to the bone, violent storms bring down branches as well as leaves and darkness wins over light.  She has much to offer and much to take.  A time of plenty turns to a time of little.   A time of death for some. For others, sleep and escape is their only way.

Autumn stole summer from us so in time winter will chase autumn away.  For those who stay there will be hard times ahead.  Some will survive to welcome another spring.  Others will perish.

 This is how it is.  This is autumn.

 

Saari's Tale

Saari is our wonderful Husky x German Shepherd who looks more like a wolf than a dog but who obviously forgot to stand in the queue marked "Brave Dogs" when they made her!!  2015 has been a sad year for her as she has lost 2 canine friends in 6 months.  We often wonder how she must feel about this.  We know when we had Poppy put down that Saari appeared to be terribly sad but obviously we had no idea what was really going through her mind.  A friend said that perhaps we should have shown her Poppy's body but we never did.  So when we had Harry put down, such a short while later, we did ... and I think we did the right thing.  

I know we cannot put human words and emotions into then minds and mouths of animals but would you grant me the indulgence, this once, to write how Saari might have felt and how she might have told her story of the last 6 months, had this been possible?     

The events in the following story are all fact but Saari's thoughts and emotions are pure fiction.

Saari's Tale - An Understanding

    "Just after the year changed and the light started to fight back against the dark, my beautiful friend left me.  We had both known for some time that the one they called Poppy had death growing inside her but that could not explain her disappearance.  The death that eats you from inside does so slowly and you gradually become thinner and weaker until one day you turn cold and your spirit flies on to the eternal place, leaving just a shell of your former being.  There was no cold body.  There was no shell.  My life had been split in two and half of it was gone.  I did not understand and the not knowing pained me greatly. 

    The arrival of the one they called Harry only served to remind me even more of my lost friend and I couldn't let him take her place.  But he was a fun spirit and over time he filled a small gap where once she had made me complete.  I warmed to his youthful energy and I took solace in the fact there was no death growing inside him.  He could never replace the one they called Poppy but I grew to like him greatly.

    Some 6 or 7 turns of the moon later loneliness was to descend on me for a second time.  The one they called Harry walked out of the door and never walked back in again.  But this time it was different.  After they had driven home and the one they called Harry did not trot through the door, I was shown to the car.  In the car was a box.  In the box was the cold body of my new friend, just an empty shell whose spirit had already departed.  Even before I looked in the box I knew what was there and in that moment I knew what I had to do.  I sat. I raised my head.  I howled.  One howl for his spirit, one howl for the spirit of the one they called Poppy and one howl from my deepest being -  3 howls of anguish but also 3 howls to ensure our spirits will once again be together when my body, too, becomes cold. 

    Now I understand.  They had killed the death inside the one they called Poppy but in doing so her spirit had left her for the freedom of that place eternal.   They had spared her the anguish of  a long painful end, waiting to become cold.   The one they called Harry was my friend for too few turns of the moon but he has given me the understanding I so desperately craved.  Now my life continues and whilst my friends are not here to share my day, this is how it has to be.  I now know that on the day when I become cold, my spirit will follow my howl and we will be reunited.  I understand."

 

From Sky to Earth - A Poem

Posted by Rosie

Please click to enlarge.

I Can Sense Autumn - A Poem

Posted by Rosie

I Can Sense Autumn

The days shorten and there's a nip in the air.
It's woolly jumpers now, that I want to wear.
I can feel Autumn.

The lowering sun ripens the fruits until they are fit to tumble.
That means the oven's full of apple crumble!
I can taste Autumn.

The plaintiff cry of a curlew in the far away sky
And the cawing of the crows close by.
I can hear Autumn.

Smoke from a bonfire drifts my way,
Grey wisps dance like children at play.
I can smell Autumn.

Red, gold, yellow and brown:
Trees wear their changing colours like a crown.
I can see Autumn.

All around me the signs are there,
To feel, to taste, to hear, to smell and to see.
I can sense Autumn. 

Rosie HILL

To be a Fisher King

Posted by Rosie

A poem inspired by the sighting of two Kingfishers, many years apart.  

To be a Fisher King

Image from Wikipedia

It was cool down there by the stream,

just me, my thoughts, my dream:

My dream to be a Fisher King.

The river: my kingdom from West to East.

The trees: my castle on the bank.

Every day the fish for my feast.

FLASH.  Silent he came, silent he went,

unseen by so many but seen by me:

The Fisher King.

A memory crept into my head, like a song,

a flash from the past.

A different day, a place far away, a King long gone.

This King was still and would sleep for ever,

taken by Jack Frost in the depths of the cold.

To be a King again, never.

It was cool down there by the stream,

just me, my thoughts, my dream.

My dream to be a Fisher King

as distant as the two kings I'd seen. 

Rosie Hill

An Alphabet for Summer

Posted by Rosie

In an Alphabet for summer we have Amazing August where
Butterflies and Bees buzz around our

Chardonnay and Chablis.

Dog Days with Daisy Chains drift into

Extended Evenings.
Flip-flops and Flippers are fun,

Garden Games too.  Now is the time for

High Days, Holidays

And ICE CREAM!

There is Jelly in July and

King-Sized Knickerbocker Glories.

Leafy Lanes and

Midsummer Madness,  

Nibbling on Nectarines and

O for Open-Air Opera:

A Perfect time for Picnics with Parasols.

For a Quarter of the Year

We have Ruby Red Roses,

Sunshine, Sand and Sunflowers;

Time for Tea on the Terrace

Underneath (sun) Umbrellas.

We View Verdant Vistas and

Whiz down WATER-SLIDES on

eXciting eXcursions!

YELLOW is just one colour of summer;

and we see the whole of Summer’s Rainbow in

a Zillion Zingy Zinnias.

Rosie Hill