I Tried to Breathe in Autumn Light

Autumn neighbors itself to Winter.  They are ancient neighbors and they know one another intimately. Autumn gives baskets full of Earth provision but also calls our attention to days when provision is scarce. It's the sacred way isn't it? The filling and the emptying. The Abundance revealed and the Mystery shrouded. The plenty and the ache. The soulful way. I'd like to share a poem I wrote about these sacred neighbors of Autumn and Winter.

I Tried to Breathe in Autumn Light

I tried to breathe in Autumn light

A feel of decay and life alike

The cold delicious air, sacred force

Flowed with ease through its inner course

Filled with life through breath alone

Yet left me longing at whispered tone

This tone, a pitch of dissonant chord,

A beacon down the path inward

Autumn's rhythmic march toward winter death

And I left seeking my next breath..

The seeking breath fills my lungs

But slower now and colder comes

My longing presses and seeks to know

But the heart finds breath by letting go

• Kirk Webb

(Kirk Webb is the founder and director of the Celtic Center)