Autumn

I love Autumn! Loved it for most of my life. Maybe it has been because, since childhood, I got sinus infections and allergies in the winter, spring and summer. But in the fall, I breathed clear. No stuffed sinuses. No post-nasal drip. Just the clean crisp air of autumn. Now, unfortunately, it is also the time that my arthritis in my back, neck, shoulder and hands acts up. But I don’t mind. I still love autumn. It is still my favorite season.

It seems that whenever the air cools and dries and the leaves begin to turn to vibrant shades of orange, red, yellow and gold, I want to write a poem. I have been doing it for many years now. It seems that the season just inspires me. The sky turns a deeper blue, the air clear and dry, and smells and sounds become more acute. School has started, and with it, all of fall sports.

There is a sugar maple a few streets down from where I live. That tree is my barometer. When the tips of its leaves begin to turn a bright orange, I know that autumn coming.

Autumn has some of the most familiar markers to the American psyche: apples, pumpkins, burning leaves, brightly-colored mums, multi-colored leaves, red berries, and the most astonishing sunsets. Wearing shorts and the beach are forgotten, tucked away in our memories until the following year.

Autumn is high school and college weekend football games, tailgating, woolen sweaters and blue jeans, Halloween, elections and finally Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day seems to be the epitome of the season, decorated with all of its symbols: autumn leaves, apples and nuts, pumpkins, and pouring from the cornucopia, the results of a bountiful harvest. If that sugar maple down the street from my house begins the season, Thanksgiving Day seems to be the quintessential celebration of it, and its end. The day after “turkey day” is Black Friday, the first real shopping day of the Christmas season.

My entries this month, therefore, will be in celebration of my favorite season. I encourage you to join in with your own efforts as well. If you send them, I will post. Until then, get out and enjoy the season.