Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light.
Theodore Roethke
Today I saw the dragonfly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;
Thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Where flowers bloom, so does hope. – Lady Bird Johnson
We seldom think of November in terms of beauty or any other specially satisfying tribute. November is simply that interval between colorful and dark December. Then, nearly every year, come a few November days of clear, crisp weather that makes one wonder why November seldom gets its due.
There is the November sky, clean of summer dust, blown clear this day of the urban smog that so often hazes autumn….
There is the touch of November in the air, chill enough to have a slight tang, like properly aged cider. Not air that caresses, nor yet air that nips. Air that makes one breathe deeply and think of spring water and walk briskly.
~Hal Borland
The wild November comes at last
Beneath a veil of rain,
The night wind blows its folds aside—
Her face is full of pain.
The latest of her race, she takes
The Autumn’s vacant throne;
She has but one short moon to live,
And she must live alone.
~R.H. Stoddard,”November”
We should enjoy this summer,
flower by flower, as if it were to be the
last one we’ll see.
Andre Gide
‘Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!
William Wordsworth
Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?
James Montgomery
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower.
Isaac Watts, Against Idleness
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.Luke 12:27, King James Bible
