~Isaiah 55:9-12~

“ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there,
But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud,

That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void,

But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Autumn Poetry

“Fresh October brings the pheasant,

Then to gather nuts is pleasant.
Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast.”
~Anonymous


“Then came October full of merry glee.”
~Edmund Spenser


“Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods,
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt,
And night by night the monitory blast
Wails in the keyhole, telling how it pass’d,
O’er empty fields, or upland solitudes,
Or grim, wide wave, and now the power is felt
Of melancholy, tenderer in it’s moods,
Than any joy indulgent summer dealt.”
~William Allingham


To Autumn
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all frit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel, to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the Bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.”
~J. Keats

In the Quiet Misty Morning

I have to tell you...misty mornings are not quiet, any more than glowing afternoons. But the sounds are enchanting, ethereal, heavenly. The boys and Daddy had turkey licenses for this week, and I got to go along and sit with them. I dragged myself out of bed the first morning at 4:45 and wondered whether it was really going to be worth the loss of hours of sleep.

The moment I stepped out the front door I knew it would be worth it. You can have no idea of how captivating the hour before dawn is until you see it. It is better than the most appealing art or divine music. At first the minutes slip by in a deep silence, as if everything was holding its breath...even in sleep. Deep shadow is slowly invaded in wide spaces with a grey wave, and even the darkest hollows look as if the glow of life is being breathed again into them. Gray takes a gold tint, and fades into white.

Dawn cracks on the horizon, and for a moment, a highway straight to the sun shoots over the next hill. Everything comes fully to life in the time it takes to draw one long breath...music bubbles out in a chorus from the throats of a hundred singers. Dewdrops, glistening like diamonds, crown every blade of grass, so that the meadow before me is encrusted with the most perfectly exquisite jewels. The whole world thrills with a swelling breeze, dancing to a song deeper than the foundations of the earth and higher than the farthest stretches of the sky.

I will never forget mornings like this. The Spirit of our wonderful Creator is so near and evident in all He has made. His fingerprints are on all creation. There is not a single blade of grass or towering tree that doesn’t testify to His wonderful gift of life. The greatest artist, He pours everything about Himself in everything He makes. I suppose it must be the aspiration of any good artist to put thought into every detail of his work. Apparent in God's work is His mind and heart. He created "good art." This original art is not only detailed and beautiful from a distance. No matter how deep you look into it, the picture is just as complex and stunningly beautiful as the larger scene. It is captivatingly magnificent down to the last atom. There is nothing in it that does not simply shout the glory of our Creator.

"But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?" Job 12:7-10

The birds are singing!

"What did Spring time whisper? O ye rivulets,
Waking from your trance so sad,
Pleased to welcome fisher-lad With his little nets,
Speed, for summer's in the air, Prattle, for the breeze is warm,
Chatter by the otter's lair Bubble past the ivied farm;
Wake the primrose on the banks Bid the violet ope her eyes
Hurry in a flood of thanks Underneath serener skies!
What a revel's coming soon Fairies trooping o'er the leas,
Crowned with wood anemones!
What a haunted heart the thrush Nurses in the blackthorn bush,
Full of splendid songs to sing, Cheery welcomes of the Spring -
Spring is come!" ~ Norman Gale


"And Hark! how blythe the Throstle sings,
He, too, is no mean preacher;" ~ Wordsworth


"Tis the merry nightingale That crowds and hurries and precipitates,
With fast, thick warble, his delicious notes; As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth his love chaunt,
And disburthen his full soul of all its' music," ~ Colleridge

March

"The stormy March is come at last
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast
That through the snowy valley flies.

Ah! Passing few are they who speak
Wild stormy month in praise of thee,
Yet though thy winds are loud and bleak
Thou art a welcome month to me.

For thou, to northern lands again

The glad and glorious sun dost bring

And thou hast joined the gentle train,

And wearest the gentle name of Spring.

And in thy reign of blast and storm

Smiles many a long bright summer day

When the changed winds are soft and warm

And heaven puts on the blue of May."

~ Bryant