Passages

As  Fly-fishermen abandon the rivers and return to city responsibilities, Nature prepares herself for the long winter. It is a time of good byes, when sail boats vanish and beaches empty. The geese certify the autumn with their formations as they head south.
It is this time of year I am filled with the melancholy feeling of a natural chapter of life coming to an end....fall, winter... Nature's big challenge...                                                                     
" The Tables Turned "  
                                                          
Up! Up! my friend, and quit your books,                                         
Or surely you'll grow double;                                                           Up! Up! my friend and clear your looks;                                       
Why all this toil and trouble? 

The sun, above the mountain's head,                                              
A freshening luster mellow                                                           Through all the long green fields has spread,                                    
His first sweet evening yellow.                                                           

Books! ' tis a dull and endless strife                                                  Come hear the woodland linnet,                                                           How sweet his music! on my life,                                                          There's more of wisdom in it.                                                           

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings !                                             He, too, is no mean preacher;                                                          Come forth into the light of things,                                                    Let Nature be your teacher.                                                          

She has a world of ready wealth,                                                         Our minds and hearts to bless...                                                         Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,                                           Truth breathed by cheerfulness.                                                       

One impulse from a vernal wood                                                         May teach you more of man,                                                       
Of moral evil and of good,                                                        
Than all the sages can.                                                          

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;                                               Our meddling intellect                                                        
Mis-shapes the beauteous form of things...                                            We murder to dissect.                                                          

Enough of science and of art;                                                         Close up those barren leaves;                                                        Come forth, and bring with you a heart                                             That watches and receives.                                                      

Wm. Wordsworth ( 1770-1850 )                                                         Naturalist and Romantic Period Poet

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