This Year’s Autumn
an early tinge of red has risen
on the dogwood leaves,
hastened by the shrinking light
of shortening days.
summer’s warmth, retreating slowly,
gives grudging way at last
to autumn… approaching
on the cool welcome winds of September.
this last full season of the year
is now beginning,
and with it, my spirit,
somewhere deep inside of me,
yearns for the time
of its own transformation;
stirred by the glow from sumac,
maple, walnut and oak.
yet though a new heaven
and earth await,
whose beauty cannot here be told,
what glory there is
in this year’s autumn;
a sweeter sorrow none but God would dare create!
– Jerry Dan Deutschendorf