Humanist Voices in Verse: The Feel of Fall

This week’s poem is by Helen Bennett. Helen is the author of Humanism, What’s That? A Book for Curious Kids (2005, Prometheus Books). Helen is president of the Humanists of Brevard and is a former high school and university English teacher, children’s librarian, and editor.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to hnn@americanhumanist.org with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

THE FEEL OF FALL

Take back your summer vacations,
Give me the feel of fall,
When the air is crisp and the cloud’s a wisp,
And the pumpkins line the wall.
When the hay is coiled in the meadows,
Autumn’s golden yield,
And the cider stands dot the lands
Where the scarecrows guard the field.
Take back the green of summer,
Give me a fall vacation,
When the russet reeds and the yellowed weeds
And the changing vegetation
Send forth their shock of colors
In scarlet, wine, and gold,
Splashing the rolling hillsides
With wonders to behold.
Here, a blush of crimson,
And there, a variety,
And here, a thousand golden coins
Sparkle on that tree.
It’s autumn in the mountains,
In Georgia, in the hills,
It’s autumn here in Georgia
That captivates and thrills.
For autumn in the Northland
Presages winter’s chill,
But Heaven is in Georgia,
Beside a water mill.

—Helen Bennett