Last year I titled my fall break blog “Reflections on To Autumn by John Keats”. Last year I spent fall break admiring the changing colors in around the tri-state area of Philadelphia.
This year the poem was intensified as we spent the last several days in upstate Wisconsin. On Wednesday, I spent the afternoon circling the trails around Lake Hildebrand and Rock Lake, trail systems several miles from campus, with Mark Jalovick and six of the WWC students. As we ran the trails, we couldn’t help but celebrate God’s creation and artistry. I am amazed by the multi-faceted explosion of the colors that seem to have peaked in just a few days. The sun, glistening off leaves, enhanced the experience. I was reminded of Keat’s poem and thought it needed an encore reference.
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
