 |
| magnolia seed pod from the patio at Willow Manor |
in death clothes
of an August womb
amniotic perspiration
embalms
my unborn
summer corpse
annual gestation
in Midwestern sun
cocooned
till autumn genesis
calls this
lazy Lazarus
to come forth
Tess Kincaid
August, 2009
I hibernate in summer. Heat does not go kindly with me, so I seek the cool and dark. My creative juices run thick as sludge and I remain in limbo until fall. Last week, I felt it. That still, heaviness in the air that bodes change. It's the birth pangs of autumn and I am giddy with anticipation. I like to think it's because I was born in October, that fall happens to be my personal spring, the season in which I am resurrected into my element, when my juices flow free and fresh like the fall breeze through open manor windows. I have them open today.
I'm ready to be called forth as well!!!
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty pleasant here today, but certainly not time for us to open the windows and turn off the air yet. I envy you that.
Autumn - the beginnings of the new year based on all those exciting back to school experiences of a life time. The harvest begins. Tonight I turned on the little white twinkly lights above the mantel for the first time this season. Welcome to your element Willow!
ReplyDeleteYes, well... I've run out of accolades. You and Harnett-Hargrove are bastions of consistent quality.
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't take down your old Magpie banner (the statue with the shield)... we perma-linked it on 10thDoM.
Um...okay. I just redecorated over at Magpie. I'll stick the statue and shield up somewhere on the sidebar.
ReplyDeletea Fall butterfly - interesting. I like that!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say "please."
ReplyDeleteBaino's gonna kill me.
Not yet please. I love summer; autumn makes me depressed.
ReplyDeleteBisou, Cro.
After two days of totally unseasonable temperatures near 90, I was so happy to have our normal 70 degree day time summer temp and the night cool weather in the low 60's. That's one reason, I've lived in this area for the past 33 years. I fled Georgia because I hate the weather there and have loved this area.
ReplyDeleteI have an October birthday as well
( the 3rd ).
Elegantly writ. Autumn is my spring, too, and I'm infinitely in love.
ReplyDeleteAutumn is a beautiful time of the year.
ReplyDeleteDear Willow, Your poem so very succinctly encapsulates the feelings which you outline at the start of this posting. For me, there is always an imperceptible change on 1st. September as summer slips quietly away. I love it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent photo choice, and poem-story of the edu variety. GooooD!
ReplyDeleteI wish to revive the formerly popular movement for planning a (sort of) retreat weekend at Willow Manor...Ooops!
I Loved this!
"..till autumn genesis
ReplyDeletecalls this
lazy Lazarus
to come forth.."
Loved this.
I absolutely love Summer! When the temperature hits 85 degrees, I start to feel comfortable. Until then, I wear sweaters and complain about air conditioning.
ReplyDeleteI love Autumn. I love its colors and crispness and the clear blue September sky. The beginning of school feels like my new year.
I love Spring! The awakening of the earth stirs me like nothing else.
Winter: no comment.
Willow you voiced the samething I did, I too cannot function in Spring and Summer. It is like the reverse of what everyone feels. I come alive with Fall and Winter, I look forward to it with excitement. Love the poem.
ReplyDeleteWillow you voiced the samething I did, I too cannot function in Spring and Summer. It is like the reverse of what everyone feels. I come alive with Fall and Winter, I look forward to it with excitement. Love the poem.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love Autumn too lazy lazarus - its like a mini new year for me, settling down to the real work of living after the hiatus that is waiting for the sun to come out over here!
ReplyDeleteWillow,
ReplyDeleteAutumn in my resurrection also.
rel
Interesting phrases here...
ReplyDeleteSummer is coming to an end, and that might mean Tuesday could be one of the last days my friends Elizabeth & Robert and I go to the Ocean beach, Robert Moses. We hope to find things to do in the Fall & winter that don't include the beach, but for now it is glorious there, water warm, air breezy.
ReplyDeleteSummer is coming to an end, and that might mean Tuesday could be one of the last days my friends Elizabeth & Robert and I go to the Ocean beach, Robert Moses. We hope to find things to do in the Fall & winter that don't include the beach, but for now it is glorious there, water warm, air breezy.
ReplyDeleteSummer is coming to an end, and that might mean Tuesday could be one of the last days my friends Elizabeth & Robert and I go to the Ocean beach, Robert Moses. We hope to find things to do in the Fall & winter that don't include the beach, but for now it is glorious there, water warm, air breezy.
ReplyDeleteOh, Lori, you're making this particular Midwest girl feel very land-locked, indeed! It's been years since I've seen the sea.
ReplyDeleteLovely, and I share your love of autumn. It is the best time of year for me.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite season, Autumn yet Winter is when I feel giddy. Autumn gives me peace and a little excitement at the thought of my favourite month approaching; December.
ReplyDeleteAnother lovely piece of writing.
CJ xx
I like summer. I like fall too, it's refreshing especially since our fall is like most people's summer. But I really really don't like winter.
ReplyDeleteFall, glorious fall! Wood smoke teasing my nose, crisp breeze upon my face...shrouds of heavy morning mist above the confluence of mighty rivers...BLISS! = ')
ReplyDeleteAh, Willow...if I lived anywhere else in the "48", no doubt I would be in agreement with you....but, as you know, I have had four days TOTAL of sun, blue skies and warmth since April.... it has been a cold and depressing "Summer"...
ReplyDeletebut, LIKE YOU, Autumn is my favourite time of the year...and although most of the leaves don't turn colour here, one can smell the change and feel it....and....one more thing we share.....an October Birthday!
Tomorrow, I am heading to my "second home" - SF Opera....first piano rehearsal for our season opener - "Aida". It's going to be a busy season....48 rehearsals and 50 performances!
Love,
♥ Robin ♥
"I like to think it's because I was born in October, that fall happens to be my personal spring, the season in which I am resurrected into my element,"
ReplyDeleteI love the way you say the things I feel but don't always know how to articulate! Being born in September, the return to school and a timely schedule, these are all the New Year for me. Perhaps it's because I take the summer "off" with no particular routine that I look forward to a more purposeful passing of time.
This poem is genius.
I can feel it in the air here today too...still I'm not quite ready to let go of summer...hoping for more sailing:)
ReplyDeleteMaybe if I sailed the glorious sea in summer, I wouldn't be so happy to see it go! :^)
ReplyDeleteIt seems the older we get the more I hibernate in the summer instead of the other way around. I love the autumn and can feel a lift in my walk even. Makes one want to get going. Wonderful poem.
ReplyDeleteQMM
All of us were October births. Patty, myself and you. Good time too.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the harvests over the years as you have. I think people born this month are a lot more creative, hold grudges 2 minutes longer than the rest of the people, and are easy to satisfy with nice things.
Wonderful poem and photograph...totally captured me. I am still relishing summer, as it has been an oddly cool one here in CA, though I will gladly enjoy the falling leaves and hang my pumpkin flad once fall arrives.
ReplyDeleteI love it all and right now summer is in it's last days of warm afternoons but autumn has my heart...your words express my feelings of autumn as the true beginning...beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't noticed any creative lethargy in particular, Willow!
ReplyDeletethat may be so, but you seem to run on pretty high octane most of the time xxo
ReplyDeleteAfter our record setting heat wave for this area I am looking forward to Fall which I felt in the air this past weekend. Fall is my favorite time as it is for many. Your descriptive words are beautiful. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteI'm in love with what you've said. I'm a late September baby and feel exactly as you do. You've explained it all. Summer almost kills me every year, I hardly ever even leave the house. Living in Phoenix probably isn't the best for a person like me.
ReplyDeleteIt was in the 50s this morning! I was excited that I actually ran the heat a little bit in my car on the way to work. If I weren't such a pessimist I would love fall better - it's that pesky winter tag-along that bugs me!
ReplyDeleteBug, I don't think I ever run the heat in my car. Not even in the dead of winter. With coat and Zhivago hat, who need heat? I know. I think I'm an amphibian.
ReplyDeleteI too find myself creating more in the fall. The summer heat makes me feel wilted and cranky.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful writing and the picture of the Magnolia seed pod it beautiful too.
Oh yeah...come on autumn...right there with you on this one. I find that I too hibernate in the summer...all closed up. Enjoyed reading your take on this. We must be kindred spirits. I'm also a Libra...10/4.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your autumn posts.
that was beautiful dear. great post :)
ReplyDeleteI wonder if most people like the season in which they were born. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI feel exactly the same way. Born in November. Hmm, maybe that's why I love fall so much. Summer is just not my thing anymore. Gone, in fact long gone, are the days for catching a tan.
ReplyDeleteI was born in spring, but fall is my true love. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, yes! The dryer, slightly cooler weather we've had the past few days has been balm to a summer-fried soul!
ReplyDeleteI like to learn new things and much of the time you teach me things. This is the first magnolia pod I have seen. I can understand your summer hibernation. I have been doing the same thing this summer.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love "lazy Lazarus!"
ReplyDeleteThis is Beautiful! "AMNIOTIC PERSPIRATION" praise be woman! You are the epitome of a summer sword!
ReplyDeleteThis is Beautiful! "AMNIOTIC PERSPIRATION" praise be woman! You are the epitome of a summer sword!
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of a "seasonal" creativity. Intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI was born in winter but love both autumn and winter. Trouble is that we are headed for spring here in New Zealand and have the heat of summer ahead of us.
ReplyDeletethis piece of poetry, Willow..is stunning..Love every stanza...Love It...bkm
ReplyDeleteYes, there has definitely been a change in the air. I like having four seasons, but am partial to the "changelings"--spring and fall.
ReplyDeleteThis was beautifully done. Thank you.
I like Autumn as well that is when the breeze starts to flow in, but with Texas weather who knows. I want to move to a state where I can actually witness all four seasons, that would be awesome.
ReplyDeleteMaybe when you were a kid the car didn't have heaters. I know we didn't have a heater and used lap bankets. Somebody had to sit beside the driver and work the windshield wiper, Stick shifts. Those were the days.
ReplyDeleteA Libran Willow needs water. Sorry,
ReplyDeletebut you are going to have to move.
I too adore autumn, october birthday for myself too and this year....65th. gulp. but i also adore summer. in fact, pretty much every season. winter is great for a month, but then i'd like to switch.
ReplyDeletei agree w/Leslie that, for me, autumn for years mean back to school new beginnings feelings even long after i was done w/school. however now that connection has pretty much faded. still, the feel and smell especially of autumn in the air sets me out of grasshopper mode into ant mode. scurry scurry, getting ready for the winter.
lovely poem and photos.
This morning we arose to 57 degrees. I pinched myself, thinkin my mioptic eyed decided to read the numbers right to left. We just had a few weeks of 95 degrees to over 100 degress, and thats not heat index, it's actual reading.
ReplyDeleteNitWit, it's currently a lovely 66 degrees this morning at WM, but supposed to be back in the 90's by Monday. Ug.
ReplyDeleteNeci, I am fortunate enough to experience all four seasons, here in Central Ohio. I would be so bored in a temperate climate. For the most part, except for the extreme heat, I enjoy the drama.
ReplyDeleteI,ve never thought of it in that way before ,but you are right. My Birthday is on the very end of July, and the months of June & July are always the most enjoyable to me.Waiting for my own personal lazy Lazarus I guess!
ReplyDeletewillow i'm a summer born boy but i love the autumn for its colour, its wild variety of weathers, and especially the gathering of goodies for the winter months. steven
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo and poem. I do love the fall, as well. The sun is at a different point almost daily as I head out to work, and it's making me realize that soon it will be sweater weather, which is just fine by me.
ReplyDeleteI feel the way you do about heat. Fortunately, I live in a part of the world where it just doesn't get that hot.
ReplyDeleteYou see, it pays to hang around
ReplyDeletehere and read the comments,
for one begins to paint that
picture in their mind of Willow
Manor and its mistress. All I
could garner from the first
sniff was that WM was "somewhere
in America". But today I am
overjoyed to begin the mental
schematic-building of putting
folks in specific places, in their
proper niche and placing on
the friendship shelves within.
So first I stumbled onto
Midwest, and then I found
Central Ohio. In light of the
Autumnal Ball upcoming, it
is good to know your
whereabouts.
I would have continued with my
ReplyDeletethoughts on comment prior, but
the cyber gnomes get cranky when
one wanders into a stream of
consciousness state. So all one
can do is re-post the thoughts
as they tumble forth, colorful,
mantled in sweetness and red
shag, nice to touch, and always
honest and direct; often pleasant
and tasteful, but sometimes
otherwise, yet never dipping
deep into scatological realms
or candor-free zones.
My wife, my soul's brilliant aura,
ReplyDeletewas also born in October, sometime
early in the morn in 1954. For
six years now we gather by
the sea at a resort in Pacific Beach,
WA, and our family and friends
who have the time and inclination,
gather at the MISS MELVA'S BIRTHDAY
BASH. We rent cottages, motel rooms,
and put up tents, gathering for meals,
games, and fun. Stop by some year
and sit with us in long rows of beach
chairs sucking in the kelp and negative
ions, pointing north up to the
Indian reservation, where the best
sea stacks stand, flowered with
green conifer and wild flowers,
ringed with flocks of gulls and
crows, and sit with us for the
huge beach fire on October
21, the actual birthday, when
the singing and drinking commence.
Autumn in the northwest is brilliantly
ReplyDeletewashed in the fall colors, and biting
the brow with the nip in the air,
whispering promises of ice on the
puddles and windshields; time to
cover the outside faucets, and pull
the tenderest plants inside to stay
warm with us, for our cat to nibble
on and rub against. It is late August
here in my valley, near the Puyallup
river, with Mt. Rainier mostly naked
on the hazy horizon outside the
kitchen window, and off the northern
corner of our puncheon deck.
The mountain will cover itself in
white over the next few weeks.
The neighbor's 100 year old
maple will cover our yard in
orange and yellow leaves.
Summer is packing its bags
and Fall has sent its intention.
"Summer is packing its bags and Fall has sent its intention."
ReplyDelete((sigh)) Glenn, you may leave these beautiful comments any time you like. By the way, your brilliant wife and I were born just two years and one day apart. Mine is October 20, 1956.
wow.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed reading this. You have a flair with finishes. Great stuff.
ReplyDelete