Wednesday, September 11, 2019

A Book of the Seasons: September


SEPTEMBER
“The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign
 some office to each day
which, summed up, would be
 the history of the year.”
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852

I would know when in the year
to expect certain thoughts and moods,
as the sportsman knows 
when to look for plover.

*** 



September 1.
Thistle-down descends
Smooth lake, full of reflections,
the ripening year.
September 1, 1852





Now after the rain
the air of late is cooler,
clearer, autumnal.

A season for berries
as beautiful as flowers,
berries far less known.

These mornings I move
into an eastern chamber
to sit in the sun.

September 5.
Water rises, winds come,
weeds are drifted to the shore.
The water is cleared.
September 5, 1854

Incessant flashes
lighting the edge of the cloud.
A rush of cool wind.


Paddling without sound
toward clouds in the sunset sky
as the twilight fades.

The ripening year,
all my thoughts break out spotted
yellow, green and brown.

September 9.
Liatris blooming
rich fiery rose-purple,
like the sun rising.
September 9, 1852

Dew on a fine grass,
white and silvery as frost,
seen against the sun.

This cold white twilight
and bright starlight makes us think 
of wood for winter.

One dense mass of the 
bright-golden solidago
waving in the wind. 

September 13.
Melons and squashes
turn yellow in the gardens,
and ferns in the swamps.
September 13, 1858

With their shrill whistle
tell-tales sailing in a flock
showing their white tails.

Witch-hazel opened.
A third or a half its leaves 
are yellow and brown. 

Shadow transits rock,
 eight or ten in sight from cliffs.
Such a day for hawks. 

September 17.
[wood duck]
At last one sails off,
calling the others by a
short creaking note.
September 17, 1860





Corn-stalk tops are stacked,

potatoes are being dug;
the season of fairs.



To live each season
as if nothing else to do
but live each season.


The dimpling circles
inscribed and erased amid
the reflected skies.

The forenoon is cold,
but it's a fine clear day for 
an afternoon walk.

These bracing fine days
when frosts come to ripen the
year, the days, like fruit.

The summer concludes
with the crisis of first frosts.
The end of berries.

Suddenly withered
the rich brown button-bushes
paint the river’s brim.

I am detained by
the bright red blackberry leaves
strewn along the sod.

Single red maples
bright against the cold green pines
now seen a mile off.

A little dipper
in middle of the river.
I sit down and watch.

The first severe frost
in the garden this morning,
ice under the pump.

Cool breezy evening
with a prolonged white twilight,
quite Septemberish.

Insects in my path.
Each has a special errand
in this world, this hour.






A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality.”
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2019

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