Fall (Edward Hirsch)
Fall, falling, fallen. That's the way the season
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition with the final remaining cardinals) and then
Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager
and the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever
loping down the center of a wide street and the sun
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance,
a gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud
Blamelessly filling the space with purples.
Everything changes and moves in the split second between summer's
sprawling past and winter's hard revision, one moment
pulling out of the station according to schedule,
Another moment arriving on the next platform.
ItHappens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet,
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us,
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall falling on us.
The autumn light of late afternoon
This is what a happy, wet dog looks like...
Beginning at the yacht club on Bellingham Bay and going to the Alaska Ferry Terminal in Fairhaven - that was the route for the Parade of Lighted Boats. Well, it was a bit disppointing, because I think there were only six or seven boats, but the holiday spirit is definitely alive and that is a wonderful start to the festive season. It's December already!
