I know it's November but today was like October

When I was in the fourth grade at South Elementary in Bedford, PA, Mrs. Shaffer gave us a tiny book of poetry. We memorized verses of poetry each week. It was a chore but some of those poems are with me yet, as is the little booklet. That was over 40 years ago. Wow! That was a long time ago! Below is one of my favorites. This time of year always calls it to mind. Hope you enjoy it, too. Mrs Shaffer would explain all the lines to us the week before we had to recite it.

October's Bright Blue Weather
By Helen Hunt Jackson

O suns and skies and clouds of June,

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,

Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And Golden-Rod is dying fast,

And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight

To save them for the morning,

And chestnuts fall from satin burrs

Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie

In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls

Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things

Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

And in the fields, still green and fair,

Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,

In idle golden freighting,

Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush

Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,

By twos and twos together,

And count like misers, hour by hour,

October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather.