River in shadow, twisting through banks ablaze
With the russets and reds, ambers and apricots
Wealth of nature, invested in gold,
Dropping to earth.
Autumn light and low sun reflecting in water
A landscape of stillness and quiet moments before
Winter storms and cold freezing skies strip
The branches bare.
Creation in temperate lands at its
Most magical,
Most colourful,
Most glowing
In glory at its death.
Poem and photo copyright Englepip©
Blown into a deep gateway
Jewels of leaf fall
With gold: preceding winter.
Haiku and photo copyright Englepip ©
In the Fall
Everything falls earthward
It should be a time of
Desolation
Despair
Disillusionment
At Summer’s end.
But Autumn leaves
Turning to their brightest
Most gloriously
Inventive
Artistic
Enthusiastic
Sublime embrace
Of life.
In death
Nature shines
Puts on her
Royal robes
And parades
Across the land
Dancing in the wind,
In glory.
And why?
Because she knows
This is just the beginning
That after a winter retreat
There will be new life
New beginnings.
This is not death at all
This is life conquering death
Looking for tomorrow.
Poem and photo copyright Englepip ©
A sudden chill
And Autumn turns to winter
Overnight.
Leaves that have clung
Through Autumn gales
Now frozen on each bough
Cling tentatively
Before succumbing to the chill
And falling one by one
By one.
The freezing fog lies
Long into the day,
Mist throughout the
Forest rests
On bracken fronds beneath
Turning them ice-white frosty.
It is as though time has stopped
And nature has withdrawn
To think about its future,
Giving the world
A much needed
Breathing space.
Poem and photo copyright Englepip©
You leave me hanging on
Waiting for a word of commitment,
Not to be found,
But encouraged by your smile
And flattering words I am still here.
You leave me in a limbo
Between emotional life and death
Feelings once blossoming
Subdued and dying back
With each Autumn day.
Caught by the power of your scent
And the addictive intimacy
Of your touch, I was blinded by
Your words of love: a sham.
Now I am held here,
Dangling from your branch
As a dead leaf which turns from green
To brown, until it flutters lifeless
To the ground of your winter.
Photo and words, copyright Englepip©
Photography by Englepip©
One leaf falling
Down through the bright blue sky
Tinged with amber and Autumn golds
Just one leaf falling.
Colours of the refiner’s fire
Rising, falling and twisting
Into a fickle wind blowing,
Only one leaf falling.
Losing hold on what held life together
Surrendering to uncertain times.
But only one leaf falling: for now.
But if one leaf falls after another
Losing grip on the life-giving tree
To face the full harshness of winter
Will they lose the good
To fall free?
Or will they just follow unthinking
Like sheep who know not what to do?
Or is falling always a part of
What happens to find what is true,
So it can rise up in the future
Like a phoenix from ashes to skies?
Just one leaf falling:
But where will it land?
Photographic images by Englepip Copyright ©
At first the Autumn creeps almost unseen
As leaves become duller, a little less green
Then suddenly out of the sky come the winds
First breezy, then blowy and then in a spin
That whirls and screeches and roars through the night
Bringing rain pellets from a huge height
‘Til, like stones, they drop on the waning flowers
And tumble the blossoms down with their might.
But the sun comes out and all is fair
Yet there’s a new coolness in the air.
Next the leaves change to a beautiful hue
Traffic light colours in the park to view
The squirrels run jumping canopy high
Gathering nuts – they know winter is nigh,
While down on the ground the hedgehogs are seeking
A sheltered bed for their long, winter sleeping.
And then we awake to the first full frost
The puddles are glassy, the flowers are lost.
And overnight the trees are made bare
The ground like a stone and the daylight has gone
The temperature plummets to minus figures
And the full force of Arctic winds is bitter
For Autumn has ended, and winter has hit us.
Photography by Englepip©
In Winter, I have a penchant for ..
Log fires and mulled wine
Snow boarding or skis
For warm scarves and mittens
And a good book to be read.
Come Spring, my penchant changes
to be out in the wild
to watch the winter frosts melt
And see the newborn lambs.
Then comes the oppressive heat of Summer
And my penchant is …
for a seat in the deepest shade
with a cool lemonade
A good book to read… but no moving.
Come the Fall, I’m out again
And my penchant is ….
For colour and for leaves,
I can kick, leaves I can crunch
Nature’s work of art.
But the constant penchant,
The consistent penchant,
The one dependable and true
Is the penchant I share with YOU!
Well … that’s my pen chant for today.
Photos by Englepip ©
Peculiar – that’s what it is
When wetness falls out of the heavens
to touch the trees and the mountaintops,
making pools on the ground ….
but such is rain.
Strange when the ocean recedes
And the rocks are exposed for hours
Before it returns to the same place to start over ….
As the tides come and go.
Odd when the leaves fall off the trees
and the branches wave like witches’ fingers in the cold
when temperatures plummet ……
in the Fall.
Unfamiliar when the land is covered in snow
And it drifts in folds across the landscape
Making everything clean and white and blanketed ……
in winter.
Uncanny when the wind screeches wildly
Whipping up the water into huge waves
Demolishing our world ……..
in a hurricane.
Bizarre when standing on dry land
leads to slipping and sliding as though on glass
And nothing is stable enough to be walked on ……..
without falling on the ice.
Peculiar, that the most natural things in the world
Our weather, seasons and tides can be so strange.
Englepip's World 