More "Dreaming"

In keeping with Derek's "Dreaming" theme, allow me to show off some of my wife Cindy's autumn photographs along with two of my favorite "October" poems. At this time of year I am, in Frost's words, not "averse to being beguiled." But, of course, I know my pilgrimage leads elsewhere. Ironically, those who worship nature (Pantheism is quite "hot" these days) actually silence it. But when we empty nature of "divinities" we fill it with "Deity." The Pantheist, as Lewis points out, is "so impressed with postman's uniform that he omitted to take in the letters." Autumn tells the glory of God; the beauty declares the work of his hands!


O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow 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

October woods wherein
The boy's dream comes to pass,
And Nature squanders on the boy her pomp,
And crowns him with a more than royal crown,
And unimagined splendor waits his steps.
The gazing urchin walks through tents of gold,
Through crimson chambers, porphyry and pearl,
Pavilion on pavilion, garlanded,
Incensed and starred with lights and airs and shapes,
Color and sound, music to eye and ear,
Beyond the best conceit of pomp and power.

Ralph Waldo Emerson