An Offering to Autumn

Posted:20 October 2015

Come autumn and we often turn to poetry to describe this rich and wonderful season. Certainly here at the Garden House we love to watch the leaf change, to clear away what was the summer’s glory and to revel in the smells and colours of autumn. Perhaps we also love autumn because we can start to think about hanging up our gardening gloves, cleaning and oiling our tools, preparing for Christmas and putting the garden to bed until spring!

There are a few spaces left on our Celebration of the Seasons monthly course, starting Tuesday 3rd November. The first session will include learning how to propagate shrubs from berries; making an autumn wreath using fruits, seed heads, and berries plus tastings and recipes for chutneys and jellies!  Find out more HERE.

We love this poem…An Offering to Autumn by Tyler Knott Gregson

This is an offering to Autumn,

to the saddest season somehow filled with stoic hope,

to the slow fade of color from green to yellow

yellow to orange and orange back to red

and the final sigh before the final leap back to

the final resting place on the floor of the

 

world.  This is an offering to the spoken words

on rain soaked mountain tops, the vows and promises

to a life waiting to be built; to the audience of trees,

rocks and clouds that bear witness.  This is my offering,

burnt like sincere words on secret paper and scattered

 

into the air again, to the black of ash that won’t

wash off.  To the sun that sleeps earlier and the

moon that sits in the sky to watch her slip into slumber;

to the brief and beautiful moments they share the sky together.

This is on oblation to the sound of snow geese in the darkness

and the struggle to find their contrast of white

on black; to the moonlight that shines upon them and to the

wonderment of where they travel to.

 

This is an offering to Autumn and this is my offering to

you.  We will dance in the falling leaves and memorize

the sound of leaves crunching under our feet.  These are alms to my favorite season and to the snow that hints at falling through the crisp air.

To the smell of wood stoves roaring back to life after the hibernation through the hottest months. To the sweaters that cover your

 

skin and the color that fades as the last of summer flees

from your cheeks.  This is to the sacrifice that all trees

must make, the shedding of their skin to the skeleton

they hide below.  To the bravery of the leaves that leap

without looking and fall without ever asking

why.

 

This is my offering to you.  To the tea in your mug and

my hand in your hand as the chill returns.  This is to how

the air smells before it snows and the way the scarves wrap

so perfectly around your neck.  To the cold of my hands on the warm of your back and goosebumps that crawl down your back to rest on your legs.  To the giant breath before the giant sleep through the winter of life.  To the red that returns to your

 

nose and the gloves to your fingers.  This is

to the way tears fall without hesitation when you face

the cold wind that Winter waits to breathe.  To the first time my eyes found your eyes.   To the home you have always been to me.

 

This is my offering to Autumn.  This is my offering to you.