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photo by cadillacdevlle2000
Season change is upon us. Autumn has begun. Leaves are starting to change. There is a cool nip in the air along with woodsmoke. Every step will soon be accompanied by a crunch. Ghouls & goblins will walk the streets. Turkeys will run in fear and tryptophan will put thousands of Americans into a food induced coma.
Autumn is my favorite season. To me, it is a pause before the great sleep, before the dying. One last brilliant explosion of color. A slowing down.
For some it is a time of remembering and sadness as the light is a little less and the darkness moves in. Since returning from my break, my poems have been a bit more moody — i never noticed a season change that affected my writing like that.
What about you? How does the season change affect you? How does it change your writing?
Talk to me. I am listening.
I was just driving through a rural part of our state here in New England and feeling so emotionally moved by the season and it’s subtle shift…and even pondering the same as you mention! I love the way you say it is the pause before the great sleep, before the dying…I too feel the mood in my writing go deep, darken- sense the explosion of color to come. I was looking to catch a few pics but we are not there yet, waiting for the color explosion…and the WInter’s sleep!
i have a photo book on my shelf of new england in autumn, a present of a guest in our company – and it is just breath-taking…
we are on the cusp…we have some early changing trees…but mostly still green…looking forward to seeing the crayon colored mountains and take a long walk into them….
autumn always reminds me of how fleeting time is and makes me wanna breathe deeper and take it all in – the colors – the scents – the mood before winter puts an end to it all… i esp. love my bikerides to work in autumn when it’s still dark when i leave, fog rising from the streams and the crunch of dry leaves underneath the tires… sigh… it probably affects my writing by adding a certain urgency…
I get that…like I said, a pause…the cycles of seasons always remind me that change is inevitable as well….ha. its a little harder for me to drag myself out of bed in the dark as well…smiles..
The seasons affect my poetry greatly, and I love that. Autumn gives me pause to think about growing old, children getting bigger, and remembering traditions from when I was young.
def. that feel of change…. and cool on remembering traditions… we used to make little animals from chestnuts and matches when i was a kid
Cool, our traditions were going apple picking, soccer, football games, hit chocolate … New Jersey in the fall is beautiful.
oy, do I really have to think about growing old…haha…with my knees I feel it a bit more in autumn….oh we apple pick as well….and hot chocolate…and since I am the film coach for the football team here at the high school…def that too…though I am about ready for this season to be over already…ha
I didn’t used to like autumn. The shorter days and the chill made me want to stay home, made me miss summer and anticipate the freeze of winter. But since I’ve lived in the Southwest, autumn is so different. It’s more like spring – still warm, flowers still blooming, the sun always perfectly bright. My mood tends to match the season here. I’m grateful for that and hope it reflects in my writing.
two years ago i was in california in autumn and indeed it felt so different… enjoyed the warmth and mood a lot – though it was a bit strange as well…. glad you found a place that matches your mood so perfectly myrna
when I lived in florida we did not get the seasons….fall meant a bit cooler…def a relief after the hot humid summers….
The seasons do affect my mood and my writing. I feel more hopeful and looking forward in the spring, happy, excited in the summer, melancholy in the fall and much more introspective in the winter. Good thing I live in four seasons country, huh?
I would agree on how spring affects me…I never really noticed it with fall/autumn until this year….there is a certain melancholy to my writing this last week…trying to push back on that a bit…try to find the light again…smiles.
I find my poetry very much affected by seasons; somehow spring and fall , when change is rapid, is so much more inspiring than the stagnancy of winter and summer…
interesting on how those times of transition are more inspirational for you…sadly those seasons (in nature) seem to last so much shorter….
The change in daylight goes so rapidly now.. soon I will not see my house in daylight except at weekends…..
ha. i hear you…leaving for work in the dark stinks…lol
Driving home in the dark stinks too! I work rather odd shifts at my job, 10:30 am to 7:00 pm weekdays and 9 to 5 every other Saturday. I love June, when it is light out until 8:30, almost 9 at night. I love autumn too, with its show of colors, warm days and cool nights. Not so much the shorter days though! Slowly I have been watching the transition, now it is dark at 7 pm, the last vestiges of light barely noticeable in the west. Soon enough daylight savings will be upon us, and then for three months or so it will be dark even for my 5:00 ride home! With the darker, drearier days my writing often turns darker too. Seasonal mood swings.
I feel the same way 🙂
Autumn is definitely my favorite season as well. I’m really excited about good ole sweater-weather and with daylight savings time ending, it’s easier to get into mischief… ha. As far the affects it has on my writing, I’d say it takes me out of that creative place in my imagination, and writing seems to focus more on what’s going on in the world… Kinda feel like I’ve been in that space most of this year, to be honest.
rocked a scarf for the first time this season today…don’t have many sweaters…ha…and yeah more shadows in the day and night def can lead to more mischief…lol..
I hear you on feeling a bit out there…the last little bit has seemed the same way for me…like I am just flying by the seat of my pants a bit…2 more weeks of this semester of grad school…whew…
Every day seems to bring a shift to my poetry, but seasons are especially influential. Up here in N.S. the winters can be long & hard where not ameliorated by a nearby sea, this seems to make the other seasons so much more intense, & the desire to hold on to, at least memories, is strong. I can never resist writing seasonal poems.
I love autumn, too. I’d say it’s my favorite, but at this point in life it seems every new season is full of wonder. Autumn is especially meaningful to me now, in the autumn of my living. It speaks of the beauty of creation, of transience and hope. Interestingly, most of my nature poetry seems to happen in autumn with spring a close 2nd.
its cool to be able to see the wonder in each…there are def different things in each that i appreciate…even winter…and the crisp air…fall is a great time of getting out int he woods for me as well…i plan on doing much more of that in the coming weeks once i get my papers behind me…
I love autumn, for the chill in the air when you are in the shadows, and the warmth of the sun when it shines down upon you – and the big grey clouds flamed against the blue sky – and how the cool air invigorates me and makes me feel alive
the crisp air def makes me feel alive…i love autumn mornings….
I think the season change definitely affects – because the winter is the best season for writing, starting something new –
One thing that saddens me is that with the amount of pollution, the season changes are not observed in the same way – there is definitely a change, but not the same that I was used to, growing up….
fall and winter make me slow down…there will be more time around the house…and the surroundings…i hear you on the pollution as well…we had a cooler summer so i worry a bit about the winter over here…i hear it is supposed to be a nasty one…and i think that th change is def different than when i was younger too…
We are having a beautiful autumn season right now, just cool at night and warm during the day ~ Some leaves on the ground but still not bare and the colors are really bursting out, red, yellow, rust ~ Though I am content with the season now, I dread the next season as our winter here is long like 4 to 5 months ~ But yes, the seasons affect my writing ~ In a way, writing is my refuge specially during the long winter months ahead ~
Have a good day and see you tomorrow for Poetics ~
as i said above i hear our winter is supposed to be a rough one…winter will be good..i have a one week class to take right before christmas but other than that i wont have another grad class til summer so it will be a nice break for me….
yep see you tomorrow…i plan on being fully back in the swing of things this week….smiles.
Autumnal haiku
can be nice, but senryu’s
nothing to sneeze at.
Hi Mad–had to say hello and thank you for the smile–senryu does sound like something you’d say “bless you!” to…
ha i seldom write either…but am certainly used to colds in the school system….
Hi Brian, thank you for listening 🙂 I just heard an interview with the new Poet Laureate–Charles Wright and he said that his poetry is very much seasonal, that he tries to write what is happening in his life at the moment and that there is an ebb and flow. I thought that was interesting. It’s still 90 degrees here in So Fla. So I feel a lack around October-December. Autumn was always one of my favorites, the air felt cleaner, crisper and I loved the way it would chill my face, just a little, and the smell of leaves fermenting–that winey lovely scent–mmmm. I wonder sometimes if my internal rhythms are thrown off, because it’s essentially always Spring/Summer, here. Am I running on borrowed energy that I’m supposed to be saving? hmmm. Or will I be less creaky as I age, because I’m always running around? Thank you for the ponderings. Always a pleasure to sit at the bar with you and others. Happy Monday!
huh i will have to look him up and see if i can read a bit about him….i am familiar a bit with his writing…i remember days in so Fla…ha…not so much seasonal change though it will cool just a bit…i used to go swimming on new years…lol….glad to have you here today…happy monday
Living on the farm, I can relate to the sense of urgency Claudia mentioned. Fall here is a potpourri for the senses, the culmination of a growing season for the farmer and new beginning for the teacher and students. Fall is a time when I’m overwhelmed by the blessings of field, garden, and family!
fall is a time of slowing down and more family time for sure…and yeah when your life is tied to the growing, fall is a busy close before winter…i wonder do you do much canning and such for the winter months?
I froze green beans and rhubarb mid-summer, green peppers (chopped) and sweet corn late summer and applesauce in the fall. I canned salsa and hope to put up some apple-pie-in-a-jar yet. It’s busy but satisfying, both now and later 🙂
most def…apple pie in jar…yum….
we make our own salsa as well..so good fresh….
Now we need a recipe site? For pie in a jar and home made salsa.
Yes, autumn is very much my favourite season too. In Australia it’s particularly beautiful, I think. Keats’s mellowness and fruitfulness certainly apply (and sometimes the mists), and often the American idea of ‘Indian summer’. Where I live now, the plants mistake autumn for spring, and start blooming. 🙂 Of course, where I live, it IS spring right now, and that’s a lovely season too. The seasons do influence my moods; they form a context for everything else that’s going on. In my poetry, I often make direct reference to the season, or at least the weather.
ha. it is spring where you are…i would so love to visit where you are some day as well…i would agree on the context that seasons can give…each one has its own rather personality…
Because I live in the Sonora Desert where summer temps are extreme, Autumn is a welcome wonder. Nature’s intensity is softened and cool breezes soothe parched skin and spirits.
oh i can imagine that is a relief…a sigh…
I went to Australia for 3 months in January 1977; it is their summer; whole upside down hemisphere thing, go south to get cold, north to get warm; living in CA at that time, being an actor; really tweaked my sense of the world. Out on the trail for OLN, I bumped into 6 Autumn poems. It is coming in slowly in WA state, still pretty warm nights, in the 40’s, tomatoes still producing fruit. The whole issue for me about Fall is it is a constant reminder of what solstice I am in for my life. At 70, summer has wane, & I def do not look forward to my winter of discontent. Lived in CA for a decade, but grew up in WA state, so the seasons are specific. In CA, the first Christmas it was 80 degrees out; had to turn on the A/C, close the curtains & sing carols.
ha. i have lived with and without seasons…they used to make snow in florida with soap bubbles….i would love to go to australia…
Well, I don’t have a lot to say; but I agree with Bjorn….that the seasons really do affect my poetry. I do think that both autumn and spring affect my poetry most. Right now I am really reflecting once again on fall and its colors and its meanings. I have noticed this in other people’s poems as well. Autumn really seems to play a part in poetry.
yep i have noticed in others poems as well…cant wait for all the colors to burst….
Its Spring in Australia… last day of the first month of Spring. I tend to live closely with each of the seasons, remnants of my wilderness childhood I suppose.
I’ve found though, with age and the passing of years that I have come to dread Summer. Where once I would play/walk/laugh/love in the sun, even in some of Australia’s hottest regions, now Summer all-but immobilizes me.
Its a sad fact of life. And soon my nature walks will be reduced to an hour stroll morning & night.
Peace & Blessings
One other thing… I am sorry my visits to d’verse are sporadic… I seem to have lost all concept of time management.
I thoroughly enjoy d’verse challenges, am inspired by the poetry and lov the interaction.
hey no sweat…it is life, isnt it? drop in when you can…and usually there is someone around….smiles….wilderness childhood….ha…i grew up on a hill surrounded by woods…most my days were spent out on adventure….
It’s not quite so colourful here yet, but I do love the autumnal colours. However, there is a sweet sadness in the passing of the seasons, isn’t there? Was just reading a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins on Spring and Fall (to a young child) and it triggered such a response in me:
Margaret are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder…
… It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
what a rather haunting rhythm in this piece….much like that sweat sadness of the passing of seasons….
“Sweat sadness”? I like that. Excellent typo.
Yes, Spring in Australia and here in Malawi the end of the dry season as we build up to the Wet.
I find Autumn to be a very inspiring time for writing. It represents so much change and it is a colorful season. I have met so many people that consider it to be their favorite time of year. There starts to be a cool nip in the air and the trees are changing before our eyes. Autumn is a muse all it’s own. I love it!
http://whimsygizmo.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/when-fall-falls/
I just got totally giddy over your post and ran-danced up the stairs in an “explosion of color.” Does that answer your question?
Autumn always seemed to inform my poetry, touch off a run of openness to nature and impressions. Set me up to endure the almost-as-inspiring (in a bad way) Winter. The latest poem is an example of that, as well as, perhaps, an explanation. BTW, hello again, my friends.
Always late to the party but for once not in absentia….make mine an absynthe, I deserve to redeem my craziness