Autumn leaves, one of nature’s great gifts.
A given gift without the task of asking or doing.
A gift for the taking, if we choose to look.
Brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds glow on this overcast,
gray, autumn day from across the fields of corn and soybean.
Autumn in the mid-west.
So vibrant!
Some appear luminescent and even neon from afar.
Beckoning our attention.
Beckoning us to stop
Beckoning us to look.
They scream:
“Do not pass us by!
Look! We are here in nature’s glory!”
A gift for you.
A gift for human kind.
A gift, if you choose to take it.
My poem this week has been inspired by a trip to our cabin in Northern Wisconsin. Yesterday, we drove the backroads to a hiking trail converted from an old railway bed. The name of the trail is the Hiawatha Trail. We picked it up in Tomahawk, Wisconsin and walked over old iron trestle bridges that crossed the Wisconsin River. The Hiawatha trail traverses flat forested land with oaks, maples, and birth scattered among a variety of coniferous trees.
Naturally, I took many photographs. Near the edges of the trail, where the sun visits regularly in the summer, the common milkweed plants had turned bright yellow matching the smaller, serrated leaves of the tall birch whose white trunk appeared more stark than ever again the fall kaleidoscope of colors deeper into the forest. No longer were green and brown the only colors on parade. Vibrant orange, palmate leaves of the maple and deep red of the oak, reminiscent of a fragrant glass of merlot attracted my gaze. The ferns, normally so verdant and lush, again at the trail edge, appeared brittle and brown but still standing tall so as to proclaim their toughness during a changing season.
Autumn is my favorite season. I cannot imagine not living where there isn’t a chance to view the deciduous trees responding to nature’s signals to change and fall. Autumn contains one of nature’s most vibrant displays of beauty. Humans have a chance to enjoy this glorious gift, if we only stop long enough to do so.
Trees.
Today is Poetry Friday! Our host for the round up is Joan Rush MacCulloch! She has a beautiful new website where links to our poems and poetry musings can be found! Be sure to check it out! Thank you, Joan!
The Apples in My Orchard 
Nice photos, Carol! Thank you for sharing your autumnal appreciation — I feel the same way! 🙂
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Thank you!
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Carol, your photos of autumn in action are so beautiful. Here on Long Island, I am still seeing summer’s signs hanging on so your photos were strikingly gorgeous in contrast to the beauty of Long Island’s lingering summers. I am trying to see if you would like to add a couple of photos and a slice of your poem to create a collage effect for my Abundant Autumn Gallery.
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I would love that! Thank you so much! I appreciate your comments too! Originally, I’m from Western NY – the Rochester – Buffalo area. It does seem like fall arrives here earlier. Let me know if your need me to do anything. Thanks, again!
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I posted more today in my usual Silent Sunday blog (I only post photos on Sundays) You are free to use any of those photos as well! Thanks, again! Enjoy your day!
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Your photos are AMAZING (Wisconsin is further along than Ohio, but it looks like it’s going to be a GREAT year for leaves here, too), and I love this call to notice: “A gift for the taking, if we choose to look.”
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Thanks! I think sometimes the gifts are right under our feet or in front of our nose and we fail to notice! I like that you thought of it as a call to action! Thanks!
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Gorgeous photos. I think the fall colors are early this year. Autumn is a wonderful season for writing poetry.
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I love this time of year! The colors are amazing! Thanks for stopping by!
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