The leaves change here
Oranges and reds popping out
Amongst stubborn green
The wind shifts
Autumn comes to call
The world leans in here
Demands life to slow down
The quiet season is coming
The world makes ready its winter bed
Telling you to pull out your blankets
Candles and hearthfires
Demanding preparations for long nights
Wood smoke and hot chocolates
And much needed rest
gws
This brief, beautiful
Preview of delightful Autumn
With her crisp chilled nights
And gray-sky mornings
Will be brutally interrupted
By Summer strolling
Back onto the stage
Despite having taken her bow
For a sweaty encore
That nobody wanted
-gws
Days grow shorter
Mornings and evenings delightfully chilled
Long afternoons warm, hazy, and tea-colored
Cool breezes dance from the sea into the valley
Making layered wardrobes a must this time of year
The world starts to quiet down
Though restlessly at first
Unwilling to relinquish summer's vitality
Harvest season half complete
The trees begin debuting their fall finery
Resplendent in reds, golds, and browns
As purple hues return to sunset skies
The golden hour earns its name now
As the last dandelion seeds drift through dried grasses awash in glowing rays
Shadows deepen as homes reflect amber radiance in westward facing window panes
Preparing to welcome night's elongating visits earlier each day
The resting season is arriving
It carries with it ghostly tales told under cloud-filtered moonlight
Candlelight and story craft
Blankets, books, and honeyed tea
Soups, stews, and baked goods of all kinds
Air laden with aromatic spices and yeast
The world grows gradually quieter
Chirping crickets slow their masterpieces from allegro to adagio
Singing the world into a calmer pace before putting away their instruments
Fall readies to welcome dreamers and philosophers
Writers and witches
All the laborers of the mind and spirit
Into its gentle comforting arms
-gws
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
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
(A Northern California Call for Autumn’s Arrival)
Oh Northwest Wind Bring forth your breeze And with your breath make summer ease Oh Northwest Wind Gift your crisp, biting air That tells us Fall will soon come to bear Oh Northwest Wind Please do not tease Instead, herald the changing of the leaves Oh Northwest Wind Return us our foggy blanket So we may start dreaming of harvest banquets Oh Northwest Wind Please place kisses on our skin So Summer knows its rule is at an end Oh Northwest Wind Time to dance through the pines While we bundle in sweaters and sip rich wine Oh Northwest Wind Please bless us from above So that we may give thanks with Autumnal love -gws
Words Wishes and Wisdom 