October Poems

For those of you who, like me, always feel a little melancholy with the coming of Autumn, here are some poems, songs, and art pieces to resonate with that mood.

Forest of Beech Trees, Gustav Klimt, c. 1903

"Autumn" by Rainier Maria Rilke

The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,  

as if orchards were dying high in space.

Each leaf falls as if it were motioning "no." 

And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.

We're all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It's in them all. 

And yet there is Someone, whose hands

infinitely calm, holding up all this falling. 

Click to hear Joshua Shank's choral setting of this poem. 

Late October by Gloria Newton, 2010

"Intercession in Late October" by Robert Graves

How hard the year dies: no frost yet.

On drifts of yellow sand Midas reclines,

Fearless of moaning reed or sullen wave.

Firm and fragrant still the brambleberries

On ivy-bloom butterlies wag.

Spare him a little longer, Crone,

For his clean hands and love-submissive heart.

Click here for Morten Lauridsen's choral setting of this poem, which was dedicated to my choir director, Donald Brinegar.

Silence by Odilion Redon, 1913

 
"Automne" by Armand Sylvestre

Automne au ciel brumeux, aux horizons navrants,
Aux rapides couchants, aux aurores pâlies, 
Je regarde couler, comme l'eau du torrent,

   Tes jours faits de mélancolie.

Sur l'aile des regrets mes esprits emportés,
Comme s'il se pouvait que notre âge renaisse !
Parcourent en rêvant les coteaux enchantés, 
   Où, jadis, sourit ma jeunesse!

Je sens, au clair soleil du souvenir vainqueur, 

Refleurir en bouquet les roses déliées, 

Et monter à mes yeux, des larmes, qu'en mon coeur   

  Mes ving ans avaient oubliées! 

Click here for Gabriel Faure's vocal setting of this poem, which is one of my favorite art songs. 

Translation by Peter Low:

Autumn, time of misty skies and heart-breaking horizons,

of rapid sunsets and pale dawns,
I watch your melancholy days

  flow past like a torrent.

My thoughts borne off on the wings of regret

(as if our time could ever be relived!)

dreamingly wander the enchanted slopes

  where  my youth once used to smile.

In the bright sunlight of triumphant memory

I feel the scattered roses reblooming in bouquets;

and tears well up in my eyes, tears which  my heart

  at twenty had already forgotten!

Growing Orbits

In the summer of 2005, when I was about 18 months into the first clinical depression of my life (and hopefully my last), I created a performance that tracked my journey, and looked ahead to the future.  Even though I wasn't feeling it at the time, the show ended on a hopeful, celebratory note.

Anyway, the opening scene, based on Robert Bly's translation of a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, was a pre-recorded video segment that remains one of my favorites, now 6 years later and light-years beyond where I was then, emotionally, spiritually, interpersonally.  And yet, as the poem alludes, I live my life in circles, coming back to ideas and thoughts and behavioral patterns I had seemingly moved beyond.  The difference is now that I'm visiting them again, I recognize them for better or worse, and am able to respond in ways that reflect my present self.  The circles, die "vachsenden ringen" are growing ones; I go travel further and more broadly over my exterior and interior landscapes alike.



I'll always be grateful for the partnership of my friend and videographer, Bob Nolty, who not only shot the footage, but so completely understood my idea for this segment that I loved it at his first edit.

Here's to recognizing our own growth and continuing the questioning journey.