“I become a transparent eyeball: I am nothing: I see all: the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me: I am part and particle of God.”
from “Nature” an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson
October in Vermont (2003)
In the clearing, embracing the multicolored canopy,/ Behind the cabin, surrounded by a swaying spectrum,/ Colors still cling, some falling, some lying helplessly/ Between the gray, overcast sky and dark moist earth,/ Blanketing spiky blades of pale green and boulders brown,/ Divided by obscure, earthen pathways beckoning to me.
Suggesting what lay beyond this limited kaleidoscopic view,/ Calling to seek what unknown shades of green and red exist beyond./ Above, a canopy of yellows, browns, reds and greens,/ Below, a carpet of the same, torn from above and cast below./ Framed by leafless boughs and hints of a gray threatening sky.
Clinging desperately to their hosts for a few precious moments,/ Finally. surrendering to the power of the wind and drizzle./ Tumbling downward to join their peers, both freed and lost./ Heaped upon others to be directed about at the whim of the wind,/ Crushed under the feet and wheels of unseeing human intruders.
Falling rain on a brisk October day, signaling the beginning of an end,/ Soliciting a prayer of thanksgiving to Him, Creator of natural beauty,/ Sharing with Him another of His countless gifts. So much has been given,/ Even though corrupted by the ugliness of man’s shadow upon the landscape./ The Artisan of nature glorifies His spirit within my soul.