Literary Hook: Prepare for October’s golden sunrises and coral sunsets

By Christine Swanberg
Author and Poet

Didn’t we have the hottest summer ever? September had its share of toasty weather. Aren’t we SO ready for fall this year? Is there anything that compares to a bright, crisp fall day? Have you noticed the golden sunrises and coral sunsets lately? The slant of the September sun? The impending bite and fragrance of fermentation in the fall air?

Here is a morning meditation poem to start off October.

October Morning

The street is quiet as cotton here,

Today, and the air Nordic sweet —

A luscious alchemy of blue spruce,

White pine, Russian sage, lemon mint

And lavender gone to seed, blended

With smoky leaves and woods of autumn.

Here the prairie garden wraps around us

With its limber maiden grasses, its tassels

Like a hundred wish-granting wands.

Hardy mauve sedum and goldenrod.

Let morning meander through lacey

Honey locusts as water trickles beneath

The periwinkle myrtle that winds

Beneath the service berry tree.

Let one red-veined leaf float

From the sunset maple and land

On the birdbath’s lip. Let its yellow

Complications lift like cabbage moths.

Let this day begin.

This poem was first published in Who Walks Among the Trees with Charity, Wind Publications, 2005.

From the Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 2012, issue

Print This Article