October

To me, October is the most beautiful month of the year and this year has been especially spectacular. I know we need the rain, half the state of Arkansas is under a burn ban, but it has been such a blessing to go about the activities of Autumn without carrying an umbrella. Football, state and county fairs, Fall-fests in the small towns — all have been wonderful and well-attended because the weather has been so good.

I have been away from this site for several weeks taking care of other projects I’ll introduce later. Next week I will go on blessed retreat at Dairy Hollow Writers Colony in Eureka Springs.

Yesterday was my birthday, an occasion to make me so thankful (again) for friends, family, my health, and the love I feel around me in a world that is sometimes scary to a senior citizen.

I’m not a poet (my disclaimer) but nevertheless I wrote this in 2004.

Autumn

Breathless anticipation fills the dawn
On first emerging from my deepest sleep.
A sense of wonder that will soon be gone,
A fleeting pleasure never meant to keep.
What is the beauty I must see today?
Must know before it quickly slips away?
Ah, yes. My spirit soars! It is October.

The patio is cold to my bare feet
And moving wind chimes make their tinkling sound
As squirrels appear and hastily retreat
Through falling leaves of red orange green yellow brown.
I’ll breathe the crisp cool air before it goes
Pushed onward by the winter’s chilling snows,
Then wait the seasons through — for next October.

Dot Hatfield — 2004