1. "Autumn" -Rainer Maria Rilke(trans. Robert Bly):
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up, as if orchards were dying high in space. Each leaf falls as if it were motioning "no." And tonight the heavy earth is falling away from all other stars in the loneliness.

We're all falling. This hand here is falling. And look at the other one. It's in them all.

And yet there is Someone, whose hands infinitely calm,

hold up all this falling.***

~~~~~~~~~~~

2. " Lost in the Forest" by Pablo Neruda--

Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:

maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,

a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off it seemed deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth, a shout muffled by huge autumns, by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there,

the hazel-sprig sang under my tongue,

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---and I stopped,

wounded by the wandering scent. *****

May the wandering music of the season fulfill you---

Amidst the madness, may sweet dreams of peace float into the world, may we listen, blessings of fiery sunsets, flames of leaves, the lessons of fire, of flight, and all that letting go, even descent can turn beautiful under a harvest moon. The leaves have much to say. The swirl of loss, the bed upon this earth. May you be graced with the braided gifts of the dark & the light--on this edge of equinox. May kindness prevail. I send love your way. warmly, Kat

The Cadence of Autumn