a sea strong wind
sends throngs of crisp leaves
tumbling up the street
so all the trees tomorrow
will be November clean and new

Nothing touches the writer in me more than a brisk fall day! Went for a walk this morning with the dog; the ocean was stirring, the wind was so strong that the sand off the beach hit me in the face as we passed; and the trees seemed to be losing their leaves before my very eyes. There is just something incredibly surreal and timeless about a deep gray-blue sky full of wind; about watching the earth shed its ornate wardrobe and become somehow starker, cleaner. I feel an awesome sense of renewal with the loss that November brings.

Needless to say, the morning inspired me to scribble out several tanka, and then I got into the Jeep with the dog and drove the entire coastline, stopping to snap pictures with my camera, of waves and gulls and the lights on Thatcher's Island. How absolutely blessed am I to live on this rugged little island! But how I wish I were a Cape Ann artist rather than a Cape Ann poet; such yearnings to be able to paint what captures my heart and speaks to my soul. Maybe someday I will find the time to take a class or two and pick up a brush, but for now, I try to translate my moods and impressions through the words of my little poems . . .