November

by Esther M. Clark

Artist Jill Barklem.

Summer was made for the wandering heart,

The changing beauty and wonderment

In the long, gray stretches of open road

With only the sky for a wayside tent.

Meadowlarks singing beyond the hedge,

Grass with the shimmer of dew still wet;

A noon day rest by the water's edge

Summer was marvelous sweet; and yet:

November days and a bright wood fire;

A hearth and a home and the Heart's Desire.

Summer was kind to the wayfaring one,

Luring and beckoning, on and on,

Through new and untraveled, unweary ways

From dawn till night and from night till dawn.

Orchard and field in a veil of rain,

Blossoming beauty on every bough;

What more could the heart of a man contain?

Summer was wondrously kind; but now:

November nights and the open fire;

A hearth and a home and the Heart's Desire.