Late autumn, early winter

At the top of this blog, in the header picture, you'll see how it looked in my area in late October. As I previously promised, I am updating with this post, showing how one of my favorite spots looks now in early December. (different location than the header photo.)

If you click on the pictures, you can see a bigger version. You can even see the ducks!

A long time ago I wrote a poem in which I tried to convey my thoughts about the cycle of the seasons. As luck would have it, the poem has vanished, and all I have left is fragments of it in my memory. So today, I pieced together what I remember of it and added some new lines.

THE CYCLE

Bare November, winter's frost,

another day is lost.

The trees shed their leaves like skin

and leave behind a ghostly grin.

All trace of summer's gone,

vanished like the early dawn.

Fall too soon will also be

a fond but distant memory.

Icicles will stab and pierce

like fingers. Winds so strong and fierce

will whip across the fields and sky,

'til snowflakes drop like tears we cry.

But time will find awakening

With many yawns and stretches, spring.

Dressed up in dazzling shades of green,

parading 'cross the nature scene.

And once the buds and seeds have grown,

and birds return from where they've flown,

The air is thick with summer heat,

we walk through sand with naked feet.

When summer bows to autumn's call

and hands off her baton to fall,

Just as a soul is redirected,

the cycle will be resurrected.