Autumn Fires

Does anyone still burn leaves in the fall?

When I was a kid my Dad raked leaves into bushel baskets (remember those?) and piled them at the end of the driveway, away from the house and the garage. Then he set fire to them and carefully tended them until they were burned to ashes.

All this became illegal at some point because of the pollution, but I remember the whole process fondly. Burning leaves smelled wonderful in the crisp autumn air. Us kids danced around in the driveway just from the excitement.

Here is a great little poem From A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

If you have kids, read this to them and explain how people used to set fires in the fall.

Autumn Fires

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something great in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Soft October Night

I haven't been blogging much recently. I've been busy with work and other things, staying the course and generally enjoying life. But I wanted to share the following bit of poetry before October is over. It's from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot. This has been a favorite poem of mine since I was in my teens. I could write pages about this poem, and some day I might, but today I'm just going to share one little image from it. The poem is available on the internet if you want to read it for yourself.


"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. "


From "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot

I hope you all are enjoying those "soft October nights".