To the Autumnal Equinox

Monday, September 22, is the autumnal equinox. Scientifically it means that the sun is right over the equator. How sterile! Nonetheless, it is when the sun begins to shift toward the southern hemisphere, thus transitioning us away from summer and into fall (or autumn). Our days will get a little cooler (in the northern hemisphere anyway) and our nights will get even cooler as well (read tolerable). My air conditioning bill will go down!

Autumn and Winter are my two favorite seasons (not that I particularly despise any of them) because they are the ones where I am most likely to ge to sit by a fire, have a cup of hot apple cider, smoke my pipe and enjoy a book. One of the reasons I appreciate being a teacher is that I have a few weeks around Christmas to do just that.

In honor of the Autumnal Equinox, I offer up some poetry devoted to autumn (by better hands than mine).

Leaves, by Elsie Brady

How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow. 

Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.