A Leaf Samhein
the North American continent reaches boldly toward the Arctic,
we travel to the north, close to the latitude of Canada,
where deciduous trees assertively reach skyward
as if in defiance of winter's coming
when they must sleep a third of the year,
in no part of our country
do the woods celebrate the passing year
as fully, and as well, as the celebratory colors
tree after tree shouts at the heavens here in the Northeast,
earlier peoples a month from now in the islands off Europe,
lit great fires in celebration? in defiance?
as the dark increasingly impinged on the day,
the Celts called it Samhein (SOW-een),
it feels to me that the trees here in Maine
light the bonfires of their inner selves
and declare which side they're on,
the Dark will come
but the Light inside endures.
by Henry H. Walker
October 1, ‘26
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