My Cailleach Autumn Song
Tantalizing whispers begin at dusk
They disappear at dawn
So commences my Cailleach Autumn Song
Nighttime creatures walk the rail
They disappear at dawn
The day is filled with hushed delight
Nighttime creatures walk the rail
Effecting crispy sounds
The day is filled with hushed delight
Red horizons dot the trees
Effecting crispy sounds
Pink hues on the bushes
Red horizons dot the trees
Oh what splendor October brings
Pink hues on the bushes
While dead ones lift the veil
Oh what splendor October brings
So commences my Cailleach Autumn Song
While dead ones lift the veil
Tantalizing whispers begin at dusk
a pantoum by “Twinkle” Marie Manning
Dante’s Autumn Song
Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?
And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems–not to suffer pain?
Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?
Dante Alighieri
***Note: “Cailleach” is Gaelic for divine hag or witch