October – Slow, slow!

The colors and scent of autumn bring to my mind two things – my mother, who taught me to treasure nature and its many wonders, and the poetry of Robert Frost. As it would happen, they are both very much related since she was the one to introduce me to Frost’s writing with a small book of his poems tucked into an Easter basket when I was a young girl. I still treasure that little blue book! While the days of this October are coming to an end, I have been savoring the beauty that arrives this time of year with golden hues and bright bursts of red. It is so extraordinary and so fleeting that if you don’t stop to draw a bit of it inside you there’s the chance you might miss it entirely.

“Slow, slow!”

The words of Robert Frost came to mind yesterday as I was out walking and taking photographs of the autumn colors on the Amalfi Coast. Slow, slow. There is always enough time—I am starting to realize—but only if you make it.

October

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost–
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

-Robert Frost