Autumn's Afterglow...

Over the weekend the halfway point of November

came and went...

and I am trying to content myself with a more

wintery pace of life,

reveling in the breath-stealing, burgeoning beauty

of each season/month.

. 'The inhabitants of the city suppose that the country landscape is pleasant only half the year. 

I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, 

and believe that we are as much touched by it as the genial influences of summer! 

To the attentive eye each moment of the year has its own beauty, 

and in the same field it beholds every hour a picture which was never seen before 

and which shall never be seen again.'

Ralph  Waldo Emerson

Leaf laughter starts to fade but on the frosty air it seems

An afterglow of gold and jaded auburn tress still gleams

Infiltrating the heart with hues that form a tender swell

Of hope to quench lamenting rues where flaming frescos fell

Rafters, once rife with rustling hymns yield to the Maestro’s close

Like minstrels etched on welkin scrims, in majestic repose

Stark, still-life masterpieces fuel fresh and fervent awe

Where rough and tumble breezes release autumn’s last hurrah

Autumn rekindles days of yore as leaf-notes lilt and waft

Lost childhoods fondly found once more while laughing limbs are doffed

Where the heavens and earth compete, each apt to steal the show

In the fine-mingled bittersweet leaf-laughter’s afterglow

Something about the solitude of November ignites

A brooding ballad ‘neath subdued autumnal-hued highlights

Where no one but God can unfold each season’s ebb and flow

Of barren bough to green to gold to autumn’s afterglow

Janet Martin