A little retrospection to last month and the autumn heat so recently enjoyed.
The nature-lover is Helen B Cruickshank. Her lines come from the volume of her Collected Poems published by Reprographia in 1971.
SEPTEMBER NOON
Russet bracken, a spider spinning,
White tails bobbing in burrows of sand;
A finch is feeding on silver thistle,
A late bee settles upon my hand.
Still are the woods in the heat of autumn,
Fearless the rabbits, so still I lie
Happy to see the spider spinning,
While dreams like down go floating by.
Golden leaf from a yellowing birch-tree
Softly falls on the spider's thread;
The silken line on the frond is broken
The coloured finch from the thistle fled.
Stiffly I rise from the bracken covert,
The rabbits scuttle in panic flight;
The golden moment I held is over,
The air gone chill, and the sun less bright.
The cares of living come back in legions,
The glamour is gone from the autumn wood,
So frail a thread as the spider's spinning
Can carry a dream, or enchant a mood.
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