It seems to me that some glimpses of beauty call to be seen in defined frames. During the recent long and stunning Autumn, I recorded many such instances during ordinary walks in ordinary settings.
not by a thread
I dangle
by my petiole
not holding on
but letting go
so gradually
toward my only flight
The first time in October that I hiked at my favorite Minnesota lake, the foliage glowed, but the environment had lost its summer song. The bugs were gone, and silence emanated an intense peace. Long amber strands of light flowed through the leaves.
champaign sunshine floods the October meadow
trilling, buzzing, creaking silent now
as if some Elysian field
I see the prairie first as I pull in the public parking lot of a lakeside, regional Minnesota park. Every week the colors have changed. Today I don’t even go into the woods because the prairie captures me with her stunning elegance. Today, the prairie looks like a maiden at the height of unselfconscious radiance.
if any evil queen
asked who’s fairest today
it is surely you
Robins evaded my camera. They chose the quietest spots striped with shade along an asphalt trail to forage. Cottonwood seeds lined the trail and clover continued the white lace pattern in adjacent grass. This looked like the place for a wedding processional.
elongated day
Cottonwood seeds, lighthearted
time-lapsed snowstorm
An unofficial path meanders from lakeshore, to hillside, and across a meadow. The smell of humus hangs suspended. The trail keeps drawing my attention downward so as not to stumble among Wild Sarsaparillas and Wood Anemones.
the thrill of the small
path made for one foot and then
just one foot again
The skinny trail I walk enhances my awe of the Mississippi. Water licks the shore three feet to my right. The trail fades to open forest floor. I look up, and am dazzled by the canopy of bright May. Massive slabs of yellow rock lay scattered ahead. I hike over them and pick up the trail again. I’m thinking so many people must have been drawn to this very place over thousands of years.
who else walked this ground
thousands of years of footfalls
by the deep river