To Autumn

The leaves of the trees about the camp ground were thick and heavy, no longer growing but hanging limp and waiting for the first frost to whip them with color and the second to drive them to the earth and terminate their year.

The afternoon came down as imperceptibly as age comes to a happy man.

Autumn brought with it the slap-clatter of crows, fire smells, leafy sweet-rot. New corduroys, cold air, brown paper grocery bags folded over schoolbooks.

The Autumnal Equinox is associated with death, when light and dark, day and night are equal.

Autumn had arrived, that lovely, cool time of year when everything turns color and dies.

Relish and revel in the sensuous nature of the summer and try to capture it on the page; the warm breeze, the sound of busy insects, the clarity of the blue sky. Even if the day is far from perfect, try to capture it as it is.