“…And I rose In rainy autumn And walked abroad in a shower of all my days…” How I love those lines from Dylan Thomas’ magnificent “Poem in October”. On the first rainy, cooling, leaf-blown October day each year – that’s today, where we live! – I dig out my battered old copy of Thomas’ Collected Poems to read “Poem in October” to myself, whilst gazing out of our third floor window into the Botanic Gardens below, just beginning to unfold its autumn glory.
This year, I also have the pleasure of presenting a new, vibrant autumn poem, Mabon Moon, from Scottish poet Carole Bone, whose work I have featured several times before on this blog. Carole’s poetic senses express themselves visually as well as verbally; I’m delighted to be accompanying the poem with some of her autumnal images.
And the optional fairy? Chainsaw Creations have just recently spirited her into delightful Cairnhill Woods, near Glasgow, Scotland, UK, where Carole takes many photographs. “If you go down to the woods today…”
MABON MOON
Gaudy Summer fades.
Autumn ignites the soul
With fingers of fire
Lusty red and purple berries
Shamelessly plump!
Bejewel her slender branches
With wanton abundance
She scatters fruit and seed
Consummating the fertile earth
Soft mist and wood smoke
Spices cold sharp air as
The Mabon Moon arises
Like a ripe orange, sits
On a basket of naked branches
Crazy paving the October sky
Slowly she drops her gown
Of smouldering scarlet and gold
Fiercely blushing in coy embarrassment
Season of sensuous knowledge
Voluptuous in velvet colour
Honeysweet in her decay.
N.B. Says Carole: “In Pagan or Wiccan tradition, Mabon is the mid-harvest festival at the Autumn Equinox when we honour the changing seasons. It is a time of giving thanks for the things we have, whether abundant crops or other blessings. The full Moon after the equinox is called the Mabon, Harvest or Hunter’s Moon.”
Carole Bone
To see Carole’s bio and her publications list, click
Carole Bone – Bio and Publications
Contact Carole at: carolebone@hotmail.co.uk
400 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2014
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page