Sunset Ridge Woods – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

If you go down in the woods today

Green is fading from the leaves.
Yellows, reds surround the trees.
They seem to know that winter nears
Approaching it with trust, not fears.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “if you go down in the woods today”. These photos were from Friday in Sunset Ridge Woods Forest Preserve.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I did nothing this past week with the 3x+1 problem. I don’t know if that is something worth a smile, but it did make me smile. The changing forest preserve was clearly worth a smile. I took so many photos yesterday, I used up the battery on my phone. Perhaps that was a sign that I took enough of them. It amazes me that the trees know winter is coming.

I am also linking this to Robin’s Walktober.

Midsummer Daydream

I walk toward Sunset Ridge Woods busy dreaming while this summer day is busy being beautiful. Last night I read a fable telling about fairies guarding a forest glen.¹ They punished cutting trees in their creative ways using the imaginations of the trespasser. They were more effective than fines–and swifter. Natural retribution could take years or generations. Those fairies kept the riff-raff in line–if you believed in them.

Today governments take over guarding forest preserves. Perhaps they do permit what some might call over-harvesting where it’s out-of-sight and wild. Like beauty, one guy’s rightful use is another guy’s misuse. Governments keep the opportunists in line–if you believe they can. I wonder how my mind would survive a trespass on a fairy glen? Maybe they still rule in these subtle ways even without my acknowledgment of their existence. If so, who could stop them?

SOUNDS OF SHRILL TRAFFIC
SUMMER WARMS THIS SUNSET TRAIL
SHELTERED BY STILL TREES

¹“The Man Who Had No Story” in Jane Yolen’s Favorite Folktales From Around the World.

Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday hosted by Grace with prompt “Summer”.
Photo: “Green Midsummer Madness” by the author linked to K’lee and Dale‘s Cosmic Photo Challenge with prompt “midsummer madness”.