a palette pilgrimage
October slowly turns
the growth down and the color up,
it's the middle of the month,
and we are on our palette pilgrimage
to the Southern Appalachians,
we are in search of transformation by deciduous trees,
whose leaves pack away their nitrogen for next year
and ready themselves to return to the earth
in the fall that is forgetting,
many can remember the gold that is "nature's first green"
and its last,
it is as if they change clothes for a party
to look their best for brief shining moments,
some come early and stand out,
some wait as if to be fashionably late,
none of us in the audience can anticipate
the entrance's precisely so we play the odds,
ready ourselves for disappointment, and find it,
ready ourselves for glory, and today we find it,
in the cove hardwood forests maybe half the leaves are gone
so bright sun can get through
and reveal a golden transcendence
upheld by countless dappled columns of gray trunks,
individual bushes and trees, spectacular,
some mountain sides so full of glorious costumes
that I erupt in praise, and cry with joy,
the palette revealed is well worth today's pilgrimage.
by Henry H. Walker
October 17, ‘25
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