Autumn prepares to make its bow
As December takes the stage
With evergreen and holly crown
And bonfires ablaze
The cloak of winter deep and white
With whispered grace arrives
While all good folks abide long nights
As snow falls on the pines
Let not the darkness weight your brow
Do light your lamps ablaze
For soon the Solstice will arrive
To return the longer days
-gws
This is my season
The season Persephone returns to the underworld
To take up her night-sky crown
A season where darkness rules
And pomegranate seeds glisten
Like ruby drops of blood
Across a dark and mossy earth
A season where candlelight entwines with shadow
And long nights lay steeped in vivid dreaming
In this season I embrace my own darkness
Unafraid of the cold and the quiet
For this is where magic lives
Where the mythical and mystical thrive
Weaving spells amongst the silence
I remember my power just like Persephone
For this is a season where the resolute thrive
I submerge into my own deep waters
My dark reflection staring back at me
As I descend into my true self
Into the rejuvenation that exists
At the heart of midnight
I greet each version of myself
Forgiving myself for every unkindness
Every neglectful moment
In this stillness where I am
Safe and whole inside my power
For this is the season I return to self
Where I remember who I am
A daughter of darkness and fire
-gws
Gold, yellow, red
A carpet of leaves
It crunched beneath their feet
As they played in the light of the golden afternoon
Cheeks rosey and hair wild
Autumn had come
-gws
"It's Spring!" the little songbird sang, excitement trilling in her voice. "It is winter," groaned the sleepy sapling whose roots were enshrouded in icy soil. "But the sun is SO warm," whistled the songbird. "Yes, but the ground is still SO cold," creaked the sapling "Puff up, my small friend, and sleep with me a little longer. When my buds start to sprout, we will both sing a song of welcome for Spring." So the songbird tucked up into a nook in the saplings branches and together they hunkered down to wait for Spring to truly arrive. -gws
May your hearth glow bright and warm as the sun deities slumber. May your threshold be welcoming and your table full. May you dream deeply of abundance, joy, love, and laughter. May the stillness of nature restore your ability to hear your heart song. Rest well and know that, soon, the sun returns! Blessed Solstice! - gws
Gray mornings where the fog veils the landscape in its cloak of chilly mystery and muffles the sounds of a busy fall commute -gws
Vibrant yellow ginkgo leaves gilding the sidewalks in the tea-colored afternoon sunlight. -gws
I miss foggy autumn mornings in San Francisco having breakfast with my bestie in his haunted apartment in a building which was once a Gilded Age brothel. -gws
