October First - A Poem

Images taken in early October throughout the years to accompany a love poem to this time of year, inspired by a trip through the arboretum woodland.

October First

In the newborn days of autumn

When the full season’s fire waits to burn.

The forest, still verdant, begins to

Light inside each leaf with lambent glow.

Some leaves shift to luminous citrine hues,

But others cling to summer’s emerald.

If the sun is high and pierces through the clouds,

The strange transformation makes the grove appear

As if lit with incandescent inner mystery.

I imagine a faerie whose work it is

To coax the trees to glow so golden,

Pressing their forehead to their bark,

Shifting their energy deep within

Where sap already glows molten

And whispering to the tree “it is time,

for a short while, let’s show the mortal world

what Faerieland sees.”

Feral Self-Affirmations

🐌 I am a lovable feral goblin.

🐌 Leaves and twigs like to hang out with me. They fall into my tangled hair when I take walks, and surprise me later while I’m working.

🐌 My feet ground me and help me fully feel the squelchy mud, dew-spun grass, and the smooth wood planks of my home.

🐌 My belly button is cute and relatively free of lint.

🐌 I can mostly still sit in the weird contorted ways I prefer. (Even the feral get old. It’s a privilege.)

🐌 Orb weaver spiders enjoy my garden and make their elaborate webs there.

🐌 I find new magic in other people’s cast-off clothes and old things with stories.

🐌 My troll tail is beautiful and full of collected memories, coins, and baubles.

🐌 Moss loves it when I sniff and squish and exclaim over its cuteness.

🐌 I knead my feet like a cat when I'm happy and relaxed. Sometimes when life sucks, I hiss.

🐌 Mushrooms say hello to me when I squat down on their level to admire them.

🐌 I will find all the pretty rocks and bones and shells and sea glass and shiny bits.

🐌 Biting is one way I show love, and kindred friends bite back.

🐌 I go for walks in the dark and the dark holds me close.

🐌 My body is soft and squishy and just as it should be.