Autumn is a season where we begin to experience a shift-change in our natural environment. Leaves take on a brilliant kaleidoscope hue; they glow as invitingly as the open fires we long to huddle over. Its colours warm our eyes and hearts. Its mists breathe out mystery. Its transience lends itself to reflection. For it’s a portent of death and dying with leaves falling and flowers losing their bloom. It lends itself well to poetic ponderings. The poem below arose at such a time.
Veiled
Sweeping across the veils of loneliness and despair
beautiful in its death
Autumn mists cling hopefully to me
a season’s sea-changing tidal broom
But do I rather cling to them
sensing reflections of death ~ my death
as I cling to you with crying need
unheeding the shattered veils
of our past
and the reborn curtains
cutting across our future
We may rejoice in the untold beauty
that exists
now within a leaf
now within us two
as Autumn eclipses our moods
but decay stands
hoveringly with splendour
a quiet presence but always there
I stand as one amazed
and yet aware
watching this poem falling
into my mind and tumbling
rudely into yours
with no more grace than I possess
Receive it into your heart
for it was written for the deep corners
and already lay
embedded there before
it was begun
©JoyLenton2013
In plant life, dying is a precursor to new life springing forth in time to come. In human life, we can learn to die to selfishness and self-preoccupation as we allow God’s gift of new life in Christ to take root. If we hold on to a life of personal gain and are not prepared to embrace change, then we risk becoming destroyed on the inside – even as we give every appearance of being alive. Embracing the life offered us in Christ means hope, growth, change and potential for today and all the days yet to come.
Poetry Joy 
Please allow me to share some love with you!
It’s that kind of love that makes you want to scream it from a mountain top.
http://www.bravonatalis.wordpress.com ❤
Natali, thank you for ‘liking’ my post and commenting. The best love in the world is God’s amazing, unconditional love for us as seen in Christ. That’s well worth shouting from the mountaintops! Blessings.
Once again, both touched and blessed by this encouraging writing today. This really spoke to me,” In human life, we can learn to die to selfishness and self-preoccupation as we allow God’s gift of new life in Christ to take root.” My desire is to have the roots of Christ planted deeply in my life, so that all attributes of my life reflect HIM.
Thank you Joy, so blessed by your blog today.
Blessings.
Thank you, Kathy! That is my desire too. Our roots need to drink deep from the Living Well. Blessings.
This is beautiful, Joy. I find autumn time a difficult time of year as I watch everything sinking back and dying and the wonderful colours of spring and summer give way to the dullness and darkness of winter. Thank you for pointing out that there is meaning in it all – just as plants have to die back to produce new shoots in spring so perhaps we have to experience death to find resurrection. This poem and the meditation has reminded me of a couple of things I’ve read recently that point out that it’s sometimes through the death of our dreams and selfish ambitions that God brings about that resurrection in our lives – in that decay He creates rich, fertile soil where His dreams for us can flourish. First we must step away from our plan and He will unveil His Plan to us in His perfect timing.
Thank you for this.
Yes, it can be challenging as the glory of Summer is displaced at first by vibrancy of leaves turning colour, which then give way to the darkness and gloom of Winter to come. As a SAD sufferer it begins to hit home around late September and continues until Spring! It helps us to see the deeper meaning in it all and find solace for ourselves as we contemplate the hibernation seasons in our lives. There is purpose at foot, though we may strain to see it. I love the readings you mention, Helen. Such encouraging truth wrapped up in these words, “in that decay He creates rich, fertile soil where His dreams for us can flourish”. Surrender and trust will bring about His plans in our lives “in His perfect timing”. Amen, my friend. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
You’ve captured the beauty of the season most beautifully in the author’s note, Joy, in the line, “ Leaves take on a brilliant kaleidoscope hue; they glow as invitingly as the open fires we long to huddle over.” I couldn’t help but to admire the warmth of those words. But then you explored the bittersweet, the melancholy aspect of the season, which, if one chose to allow it, could overtake and obscure in a grey shroud even the beauty, the warmth, the last hurrah of the waning year. And in the season of our lives mirrored there, especially for those of us who find ourselves with more yesterdays than tomorrows, the same potential is there to miss some of the greatest beauty of our lifetime if we should chose to see only the cold, the mists, the frost, and to grieve the departure of the summer season of our lives. I loved your closing line as well, Joy, if just for the mystery of it: “Receive it into your heart, for it was written for the deep corners, and already lay embedded there before it was begun.” How very cool is that?! Good work!
Thanks very much for visiting, reflecting and commenting so beautifully, Neil! It’s all too true that “those of us who find ourselves with more yesterdays than tomorrows” should hold in balance the beauty amid the decay in this season of life and nature. Each season has its own pleasures and potential problems and it pays us to be more mindful of the good than the bad aspects. I love how you see so deeply into the lines here and draw out poetic observations of your own, especially “obscure in a grey shroud” and “the last hurrah of the waning year” – a mini poem all by themselves. Thank you, once again, for being so observant a reader of my work and inspiring me further with your insights. Blessings.
Your work is a “joy ” to read, Joy! (Is that a redundant statement?) : ^ )
Not at all, Neil! Thank you for the compliment. 🙂
Joy a beautiful expression of the season of Autumn , left me breathless and filled with thoughts to ponder .
Thank you, Maxine! I’m so pleased you enjoyed this poetic offering. Blessings.
Besides creative and well capturing the overlapping seasonal change as well as the soul; you’ve brought the inevitable with hopefulness and that is magic! xo
Thank you for your insightful comment. It was my aim to overlay the potential life/death aspects of Autumn as both season of abundance and decay in nature and in life. To leave the reader with hope is a goal I try to achieve even when writing about painful places and situations.
Excellent and true, as well as, there is that special something in the change of seasons–promises of new seasons to come, change that is often welcome and for many of us can be a cozy time. However, I also see that dying to self and the newness that comes in our springs and summers. Glorious, isn’t it.
Love, Deborah xxxooo
Yes, these shifting seasons remind us that change can be both welcome and unwanted. As we learn to celebrate the good aspects then it becomes easier to bear the bad ones! Thank you for sharing your thoughts here, Debby. Love and blessings Xx