Let Autumn Approach

(A ballad of Hodder's Combe) 



Dappled sunlight dances
On the final throws of green;
This year's summer dress
As yet unfallen to the woodland floor.

Plucked, a naked whortleberry carpet
Skirts the paths and 'neath the trees, 
Pounds of soft fruit to memory bring
From my Mother's' once youthful, purple-stained hands.

I too an aging Mother now, 
Nature's cycle trickles on;
Audible, in the drought-pained stream,
Visible, in the single golden bough that catches my eye, 
Just like my silvering tresses.

It's in this glistening September light,
The Earth Goddess sings to me - 
"Let Autumn approach dear maiden, mother, 
Let Autumn approach my dear, 
For the leaves and the fruits and the waters know, 
To live with life's flow, is to let go of fear."