October…

      October’s Bright Blue Weather

     O SUNS and skies and clouds of June, 
        And flowers of June together, 
    Ye cannot rival for one hour 
        October’s bright blue weather;

    When loud the bumble-bee makes haste, 
        Belated, thriftless vagrant, 
    And Golden-Rod is dying fast, 
        And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

    When Gentians roll their fringes tight 
        To save them for the morning, 
    And chestnuts fall from satin burrs 
        Without a sound of warning;

    When on the ground red apples lie 
        In piles like jewels shining, 
    And redder still on old stone walls 
        Are leaves of woodbine twining;

    When all the lovely wayside things 
        Their white-winged seeds are sowing, 
    And in the fields, still green and fair, 
        Late aftermaths are growing;

    When springs run low, and on the brooks, 
        In idle golden freighting, 
    Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush 
        Of woods, for winter waiting;

    When comrades seek sweet country haunts, 
        By twos and twos together, 
    And count like misers, hour by hour, 
        October’s bright blue weather.

    O suns and skies and flowers of June, 
        Count all your boasts together, 
    Love loveth best of all the year 
        October’s bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

I honestly have nothing to say that would improve anyone’s day or elucidate my own, so as a wave from the Back of Beyond I offer this beautiful poem, one that my mom had memorized. Helen Hunt Jackson loved Colorado and there’s a waterfall named for her in Colorado Springs.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/10/02/rdp-saturday-wave/