Six Ways of Looking at Autumn

It is officially the start of Autumn and I agree with author Elizabeth Lawrence. "Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn". I love decorating the inside and outside of my house in autumnal hues. Then sitting back to admire nature's blessing the earth in Crayola tones.

This month, the Poetry Sisters invited writers to join their September writing challenge by "wandering through" Wallace Stevens' Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Using the mentor text, writers were to look deeply at something differently and compose a poem maybe not in 13 ways - maybe in 6  ways with the tab #PoetryPals.  

Autumn pushes me to notice small objects that create a picture for an artist's touch. The leaves are changing; I feel poetry in the air. (Laura Jaworski) What did I see the past two week? Brown leaves make crunching noises, raindrops soak the earth, and birds fly across the sky heading for feeders in yards. I now feel ready to write.

September Leaves photo

Six Ways of Looking at Autumn

Beyond the stretch of grass and trees,

Autumn arrives with crunching leaves

Strutting through woods and crowded weeds.

Over garden beds, bees buzz and whirl.

Sunshine peeks between the clouds. Birds twirl

Poking and picking seeds that unfurl.

Ornamental grass circles gardens,

Adorning beds with purple garlands.

Fall offers beautiful bargains.

Bunnies and deers pause, taste, and munch.

My delicate plants become lunch. 

Autumn sends its breeze and such.

My eyes travel with quiet control,

Watching nature's glamorous stroll. 

Autumn touches each heartfelt soul.

The season of splendor is ablaze

With leafed hues that truly amaze.

Autumn embraces life in many ways.

CVarsalona, 2024, draft

There are lessons I learned while quietly observing Autumn.

• Embrace change
• Let go to heal
• Allow nature's colors, sounds, and elements to bring joy

“There is a subtle magic in the falling of old leaves.” - Avijeet Das

 

The fabulous children's poet and author, Irene Latham, hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup. She has wonderful news about her new anthology also written by Charles Waters. You will also enjoy Irene's latest ArtSpeak poem.

Feeling Septemberish

This year September is an interesting in-between-seasons month filled with sunshine, gray clouds, warm breezes, and swooshing rains. Poet, David Henry Thoreau noted, "Happily we bask in this warm September sun, which illuminates all creatures." Another 19th Century author, Rowland E. Robinson wrote, "September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours but in their lengthening evening a prophetic breath of autumn." Skip to the 21st Century poet, Raquel Franco who adds her thoughts to welcome the start of Fall: "And then the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep, and autumn awakened."

Writers appreciate Nature's touch on Earth. Poets bring a sensory aspect to changing seasons along with poetic glee. "There is a time in late September when the leaves are still green, and the days are still warm, but somehow you know that it is all about to end as if summer was holding its breath, and when it let it out again, it would be autumn." -Sharyn McCrumb

It's time to celebrate the transitional month of September as Lady Autumn confidently and glamorously sweeps the runway dressed in seasonal colors.

"By all these lovely tokens September days are here. With Summer's best of weather and Autumn's best of cheer." -Helen Hunt Jackson

September Memories

back-to-school days

jump rope in the schoolyard

bees circling and sunshine ablaze

friendly play and nature walks

mark the beginning of September

ending with new seasonal thoughts

cinnamon spice and pumpkin pie

I reminisce and remember

draft, @CVarsalona, 2024

I think you can see that I am enjoying feeling Septemberish.

What are your thoughts on September,

the transitional, in-between-seasons month?

🍂

 

Linda Baie is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at her delightful blog, TeacherDance. Linda is watching the clock as she says her goodbyes "to another beloved season of sunshine and lazy days and vacations" while waiting for Autumn to come along with her crunchy leaves.

Wholeheartedly Feeling a New Season

Another season will soon be here. A variety of leaves will scatter across sidewalks. Nightsky will turn into an inked mass earlier and I will hear my first crunch-crunch sounds underfoot. Autumn will dramatically enter slowly swooshing through a carpet of leaves. With a wholehearted spirit, Lady Autumn will bring the brilliance of Fall.

a season unfolds

offering a new pathway

life is a gift

©Carol Varsalona, 2024

Photo from Pixabay

I look forward to Autumn's debut and the opportunity to offer a new perspective on life. Her rich colors, cooling breezes, and longer nights remind me to pause and breathe in the fragrant essence of fall's scents, such as cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and crackling bonfires. Beauty is not the only side of Fall. Autumn also has a spiritual side to her.

Autumn walks a pathway of reflection and growth. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, "For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven." I honor nature's graceful embrace as the cycle of renewal soon begins. With wholehearted commitment, I look forward to linger and notice each glorious moment of the upcoming season. 

Please see yesterday's blog post,  Wholehearted Spiritual Journey. Today's blog post offers a follow-up connection.

©Carol Varsalona

🍂

Thank you to Heidi Mordhorst, the amazing educator and poet, for hosting today's Poetry Friday. Please join me as I link up with the Poetry Friday Roundup at Heidi's blog site, my juicy universe.

WholeHearted Spiritual Journey

It's a warm, breezy September day and at this moment, I am enjoying the quiet. I feel nature's slowdown pause, a signal to breathe in and out. My thoughts are inspired by a single word, wholehearted, which is this month's Spiritual Journey topic. Ruth Ayres, writer, author, and researcher is our host and offers various questions for us to ponder before writing. Since I am recuperating from the medical trauma of surgeries and infections, I want to learn more about wholehearted living. 

Ruth asked, What does it mean to live wholeheartedly?  Since I didn't understand what that entails, I did research. Noted author, researcher, and professor, Brene Brown, speaks on the issue of Wholehearted Living and offers 10 signposts. "Wholehearted Living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the Courage, Compassion, and Connection to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and home is left undone, I am enough." I admit I have oodles of paperwork stacked in my office so I often feel I cannot finish what I set out to do each day. This bothers me and leads to frustration and anxiety.  

One of Brene Brown's signposts attracted me. "Cultivating calm and stillness and letting go of anxiety as a lifestyle". When I calmly stay in the moment of stillness, I feel refreshed but during the next part of the day, other feelings may interrupt and lead to anxiety. Therefore, I need to cultivate calm, pause, and stay in a moment. 

My garden is a restful place but during the summer the season offered heat waves and turbulent rainstorms. I did not spend much time in this tranquil place. I patiently waited months to see my ornamental grass sporting beautiful wheat and purple hues alongside butterfly bushes and two specimen magnolia trees. When the end of August and early September brought different temperatures and soft breezes, I spent more time admiring the outside patio. The sight of my gardens and a song, Wholehearted, energized me to write a Golden Shovel poem. The line from the song that I used is "I need grace. You give it wholehearted."  Grace would help me see life in a better framework.  

"Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly ..." - Colossians 3:23-24

My goal for September is to be enthusiastic and mindful, to open my heart to positivity, and not let worry overwhelm me. I will start now because I just returned from the doctor's office. Instead of telling me I have an allergy or upper respiratory issue like my husband, I heard the word COVID. I was surprised with the outcome but knew I had to wholeheartedly accept the new detour on my spiritual journey. I am thankful that it appears to be a mild form of the new COVID virus. Maybe, now, I will have more quiet time to understand the cycle of life and wholehearted living with my one word, pause. 

My Commitment: 

I choose to fully engage in life during the next season and walk the spiritual pathway with faith knowing that my heart must be open and giving.

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."  Corinthians 9: 6-8

Thank you, Ruth Ayres, for bringing your one word, wholehearted, to our attention. I look forward to reading what other members of the Spiritual Journey community write from their cheerful hearts. You can link in to read other posts here.

Nostalgic Thoughts

Educators are in back-to-school mode, so providing students with a fresh perspective on the curriculum is important. My back-to-school thoughts are ignited by a conversation with my granddaughters. 

How was the beginning of school, Sierra (2nd grader)? What did you learn? 

             Obviously, I learned, Grandma! 

                   Then, I turned to Aurora our PreK student. What did you learn at school?

                       I don't know!

To step into the back-to-school mood, I blended mathematics with simple poetic formats to bring back the wonders of summer. I chose the Fiib poem format which has a syllable count following the Fibonacci series (1,1,2,3,5,8,13...)

Nostalgic Thoughts

sand

tucked

in toes

remnants of

sand-blown, childhood days

whirling in fabulous, sun-baked

shorelines, swishing alongside

a school of baby fish

©Carol Varsalona, 2024

Then, I found a lovely quote from a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis poem that provided a title. You can read the rest of her poem here.

Nostalgia - that's the Autumn

Dreaming through September

Just a million lovely things

I always will remember.

There are many other simple formats for students to remember their summer memories. There is a haiku below.

Happily, we bask in this warm September sun, which illuminates all creatures.

-Henry David Thoreau

For more poetic formats for students, please peruse the new book, Picture Perfect Poetry, An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students designed by Carol Labuzzetta. You can see my book review here. 

Carol Labuzzetta, editor self-publisher, poet

I turn to the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by a fabulous author, poet, and nature lover, Buffy Silverman.