Autumn Carpet

Turn me to my yellow leaves,
I am better satisfied;
There is something in me grieves --
That was never born, and died.
Let me be a scarlet flame
On a windy autumn morn,
I who never had a name,
Nor from breathing image born.
From the margin let me fall
Where the farthest stars sink down,
And the void consumes, -- all
In nothingness to drown.
Let me dream my dream entire,
Withered as an autumn leaf --
Let me have my vain desire,
Vain -- as it is brief.


Turn Me to My Yellow Leaves, by William Stanley Braithwaite


Much rain and dampness today. When things cleared out in the evening we went for a walk down the Hio, which had whole sections thickly covered with leaves brought down during the day. I think its fair to say the foliage has been especially colorful and vibrant this year, a real soul-warming kind of backdrop to the last couple of weeks. The rain today is sure to mark the beginning of the end, and trees which were full of leaves in the morning are already half empty. Somehow it seems like the trees had more leaves than usual this year, if that is a thing that can happen.

(side note: apparently someone with an understanding of leaf area indexing might know enough to answer this for me, but I've already spent enough energy trying to figure it out and think I'll put this idea in my mental parking lot for another  time.)

In any case, from this point forward I think mother nature's stage crew will be preparing for Halloween, and before long I expect to be posting images of bare trees against a moonlit sky with wispy clouds and bats flying around. If something in the woods doesn't eat me first.