THE TREE OF LIFE
~ by Christine Ross in memory of Lucas Christopher Ross 1979 - 2001
There is a tree that stands alone
THE TWO ASPENS
Once there were two aspens
"THE TWO ASPENS"
AUTUMN LEAVES ....by Frank Sinatra
The falling leaves
A LONELY SEPTEMBER .....Plain White T's
I'm sittin' here all by myself
WAKE ME WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS .....Green Day
Summer has come and passed
SEPTEMBER MORN .....written by Neil Diamond and Gilbert Becaud
Stay for just a while
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf
If winter is slumber and spring is birth,
There is a harmony
In autumn,
Fiery colors begin their yearly conquest of the hills,
Winter is an etching,
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
Besides the autumn poets sing,
falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
Youth is like spring,
All those golden autumn days the sky was full of wings.
I saw old autumn in the misty morn
I trust in Nature for the stable laws
Of beauty and utility.
Tears, idle tears,
The smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps-
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests.
With branches bending low,
Holding on to Autumn leaves.
Never wanting to let go.
The branches love the Autumn leaves
And embrace September's winds.
Laughing in the sunshine
Thinking this will never end.
Hold on you golden Autumn leaves
And orange and red and brown.
Please don't loose the branch's grip
And tumble to the ground.
But sometimes there's a sudden gust
And the branch is unaware
That the wind has blown so harsh
And sent their leaf into the air.
The branch thought it was holding tight
But the wind was much too strong
And took away the branch's grip
Making everything so wrong.
And sometimes it's a gentle breeze
That takes Autumn leaves away.
The branches watch them tumble down
And wonder why the leaves can't stay.
The barren tree stands all alone.
Empty twigs whisper "goodbye".
A wind lifts up the fallen leaves
And sends them floating through the sky.
The leaves gather above the clouds
Waiting for their special branch
To meet them at the "tree of life"
Where "forever" has a chance.
So listen when the wind blows,
As it howls through the trees.
You can hear the lonesome sound
Of a branch that lost it's leaves.
© 2007 - Christine Ross
Standing tall against the sky,
Taking in the warmth of breezes
As their leaves just fluttered by.
Then from those two tall aspens
Two more little aspens grew
In a grove there in the forest
Touched by the morning dew.
They gathered in the sunshine.
Then they quenched upon the rain.
Four aspens playing in the wind
Sometime before the winter came.
In the springtime how they glistened.
They had the warmth of summer winds.
Little did the four trees know
This would never come again.
Autumn gave them golden leaves
As they stood so proud and tall
Then suddenly a cold wind blew
And their leaves began to fall.
The wind was blowing violently
With a howling lonesome sound.
Then with an eerie silence
One tree fell to the ground.
The youngest tree lay cold and still
As the sky released the rain.
Then drops of sorrow trickled down
From the three trees that remained.
Raindrops quietly turned to snow,
Just as the barren aspens feared.
Autumn, spring, and summer... gone
And a long, long winter... here.
© 2008 - Christine Ross
In memory of Lucas Christopher Ross 1979 - 2001
Published in
LIVING WITH LOSS MAGAZINE
Fall 2009, Volume 24 No. 3
Bereavement Publications, Inc.
Drift by the window
The autumn leaves
Of red and gold
I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sunburned hands
I used to hold
Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song
But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall
just tryin' to think of something to do
Tryin' to think of something, anything
just to keep me from thinking of you
But you know it's not working out
'cause you're all that's on my mind
One thought of you is all it takes
to leave the rest of the world behind
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends
like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends
here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are
as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends
summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends
ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when september ends
here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are
as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends
like my father's come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends
Stay, and let me look at you
It's been so long, I hardly knew you
Standing in the door
Stay with me a while
I only wanna talk to you
We've traveled halfway 'round the world
To find ourselves again
is a flower.
Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
and summer is life,
then autumn rounds out to be reflection.
It's a time of year when the leaves are down
and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone.
Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year
and it's time to reflect on what's come before.
~ Mitchell Burgess 1992
and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be,
as if it had not been!
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
propelled by the autumn winds.
Fall is the artist.
Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata,
spring a watercolor,
summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all.
~ Stanley Horowitz
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
~ John Donne
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.
~ Emily Dickinson
~ John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001
an over praised season
more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes.
Autumn is the mellower season,
and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
~ Samuel Butler
Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake,
wings beating high in the blue air far above it . . .
bearing them all away to the green fields in the South.
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Stand shadowless like silence,
listening
To silence.
~ Thomas Hood
Spring shall plant
And Autumn garner to the end of time.
~ Robert Browning
I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair,
Rise in the heart and gather in the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
does anybody know where it was borne?
Yes, there is a rumor
that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud,
and there the smile was first born . . . .
~ Rabindranath Tagore
~ Longfellow
MEMORIAL AUTUMN LEAVES
"VISIT WITH LUKE"
Last Entry in Luke's Journal:
"When there is love in my heart and a smile on my face,
I need nothing else." ~ Luke Ross
"MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU"
Music playing:
BLOWING IN THE WIND