All Soul’s Nightby Loreena McKennitt Bonfires dot the rolling hillsidesFigures dance around and aroundTo drums that pulse out echoes of darknessMoving to the Pagan sound. Somewhere in a hidden memoryImages float before my eyesOf fragrant nights of straw and of bonfiresDancing ’till the next sunrise. (chorus:)I can see the lights in the distanceTrembling in the … Read more
If Death is Kind — Sara Teasdale Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning, We will come back to earth some fragrant night, And take these lanes to find the sea, and bending Breathe the same honeysuckle, low and white. We will come down at night to these resounding beaches And the … Read more
Autumn, a Wood Path © Sanford Robinson GiffordAn Autumn Evening by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942)Dark hills against a hollow crocus skyScarfed with its crimson pennons, and belowThe dome of sunset long, hushed valleys lieCradling the twilight, where the lone winds blowAnd wake among the harps of leafless treesFantastic runes and mournful melodies. The … Read more
Autumn Song © Susan Tino SantilloSong for Autumnby Mary Oliver In the deep falldon’t you imagine the leaves think howcomfortable it will be to touchthe earth instead of thenothingness of air and the endlessfreshets of wind? And don’t you thinkthe trees themselves, especially those with mossy,warm caves, begin to think of the birds that will … Read more
Earth at Night – C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Nocturne— W.H.Auden Now through night’s caressing gripEarth and all her oceans slip,Capes of China slide awayFrom her fingers into dayAnd the Americas inclineCoasts towards her shadow line. Now the ragged vagrants creepInto crooked holes to sleep:Just and unjust, worst and best,Change their places … Read more
Enchanted Woods © Richie DeanBlack OaksMary Oliver Okay, not one can write a symphony, or a dictionary, or even a letter to an old friend, full of remembranceand comfort. Not one can manage a single sound though the blue jayscarp and whistle all day in the branches, withoutthe push of the wind. But to tell … Read more
Peace of Sonoma County © Dana HawleySeptemberHelen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) The goldenrod is yellow;The corn is turning brown;The trees in apple orchardsWith fruit are bending down. The gentian’s bluest fringesAre curling in the sun;In dusty pods the milkweedIts hidden silk has spun. The sedges flaunt their harvest,In every meadow nook;And asters by the brook-sideMake asters … Read more
The Harvest MoonTed Hughes(1930 – 1998)The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing,A vast balloon,Till it takes off, and sinks upwardTo lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.The harvest moon has come,Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum. So … Read more
Autumn Equinox Ritual21 September 1997Indiana Pagan Resource Network Lamplight glimmers in darkened roomsAnd you fold your hands across a swelling bellyCradling the fruits of your labor.The rich scent of new-mown hay, the dark Earth beneath itWhere seeds that fall soon deeply sleepHere as we move towards the darkness of SamhainThe shadow that brings the light … Read more
Summer Sunby Robert Louis Stevenson Great is the sun, and wide he goesThrough empty heaven with repose;And in the blue and glowing daysMore thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds we pullTo keep the shady parlour cool,Yet he will find a chink or twoTo slip his golden fingers through. The … Read more