But then fall comes

There’s no getting around it. Today is the last day of September. The Autumnal Equinox was a week ago today. More and more of the trees are donning their flash party duds. Some have chosen to drop trou all at once, seemingly, without bothering with the fuss and jazz of colors.

How long before the snows come? NO. I must enjoy the beauty of the moment and not waste time sadly anticipating the nekkid trees and icy streets. It’ll be here soon enough.

“Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.”
~Chad Sugg

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
~Albert Camus
“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cezanne

"Coffee tastes better as an autumn storm spins orange leaves around you."
~Sherman Alexie

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”
~Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
 
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
~Henry David Thoreau

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."
~John Donne 

“But then fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.”
~Stephen King, Salem’s Lot 

“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
~Nora Ephron

To Autumn
~William Blake
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

“The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.

“The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.