Fall
To celebrate the Fall Equinox- a Haibun, excerpted from soon-to-be-released “Four Seasons in Haiku.”
We spent most of the nineties in the Midwest, in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. The first thing that struck me was the deep blue sky that appeared every year in the Fall.
“As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas, and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.”
Vincent Van Gogh.
Fall meant the end of humidity and the onset of cool mornings and shorter days, followed by a burst of new color as the leaves changed.
Growing up in California, we had more than our share of sunny days under cloudless blue skies. But the Midwest has everyone beat when it comes to the deep blue fall sky.
New England has long been regarded as having the most beautiful fall colors, but when fall arrives in the Midwest, it’s magical on so many levels — sights, scents, and the last outdoor days. Soon, winter will shoo us all inside for many months.
“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Picking apples and raking leaves were the best days of our lives. Frost in the morning, gorgeous sunsets over freshly harvested fields, and the faint whiff of smoke from bonfires…
