September

Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Myths, Customs, Holidays, Traditions
Celebrations, Sayings, Poetry, Quips, References, Links
Ideas, Gardening Chores

Quotes      Links      References      Gardening Chores      Photos     Walking      Months     Summertime     Mabon

Research by Michael P. Garofalo
Valley Spirit Center, Gushen Grove, Red Bluff, California 

Quotes

The Month of September
Poetry, Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Information, Quips, Aphorisms, Lore

"The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze."
-   John Updike, September

"But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my possessiveness.  The sun warms my back instead of beating on my head ... The harvest has dwindled, and I have grown apart from the intense midsummer relationship that brought it on."
-  Robert Finch 

"'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone."
-   Thomas Moore, The Last Rose of Summer, 1830

Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.
-  William Wordsworth, September

On the Autumnal Equinox, around September 21st, in Sacramento, California, Northern Hemisphere, Earth,
we have around 12 Hours of Daylight and 12 Hours of Nighttime. 

"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."
-  Autumn Equinox Ritual

"Alas, that my heart is a lute,
Whereon you have learned to play!
For a many years it was mute,
Until one summer's day
You took it, and touched it, and made it thrill,
And it thrills and throbs, and quivers still!"
-   Anne Barnard, My Heart is a Lute, 1815

"Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!"
-   Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September

"Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine."
-     Rainer Maria Rilke

"Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and spring, for the air, the water, the verdure, and the song of birds."   
-   Carl von Linnaeus

"Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a young and a callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow--follow, oh-oh." 
-  Try to Remember, Lyrics by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt 

Mabon: Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Rituals, Quotes      

"Shine on, shine on harvest moon
Up in the sky,
I ain't had no lovin'
Since January, February, June or July
Sno Time ain't no time to stay
Outdoors and spoon,
So shine one, shine on harvest noon
For me and my gal."
-  By Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, 1903

"September twenty-second, Sir, the bough cracks with unpicked apples,
and at dawn the small-mouth bass breaks water, gorged with spawn."
-   Robert Lowell

"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always
been the two most beautiful words in the English language."
-  Henry James

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil.
And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb  colour effects as from August to November."
-   Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer."
-   Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885

"Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the
Stooks arise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what
lovely behavior
Of silk-sack clouds! Has wilder, willful-waiver
Meal-drift molded ever and melted across skies?"
-   Gerard Manly Hopkins, Hurrahing in Harvest, 1918

"The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf
shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many."
-   Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Crown'd with the sickle, and the sheaten sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on."
-   James Thomson, Autumn, 1730

School,
Effort, and
Play.
Trying your best
Each hour of the day,
Making new friends,
Being good as you can
Exciting discoveries,
Reading books with a friend."
-  Boni Fulgham 

"Under the harvest moon, 
When the soft silver 
Drips shimmering 
Over the garden nights, 
Death, the gray mocker, 
Comes and whispers to you 
As a beautiful friend 
Who remembers."
-  Carl Sandburg, Under the Harvest Moon

"September: it was the most beautiful of words, he’d always felt, evoking orange-flowers, swallows, and regret."
-   Alexander Theroux, 1981

"Further in Summer than the Birds
Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
Its unobtrusive Mass.

No Ordinance be seen
So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes
Enlarging Loneliness."
-   Emily Dickinson

"the air is different today
the wind sings with a new tone
sighing of changes
coming
the harvest gathered
a flower, a nut
some mead, and bread
a candle and a prayer
returning the fruits
in thanksgiving
to the grove
and receiving
it's blessing
again"
-   Rhawk, Alban Elfed

"Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit, 
and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day."
-   John Donne, 1620

"Spring scarce had greener fields to show than these
Of mid September; through the still warm noon
The rivulets ripple forth a gladder tune
Than ever in the summer; from the trees
Dusk-green, and murmuring inward melodies,
No leaf drops yet; only our evenings swoon
In pallid skies more suddenly, and the moon
Finds motionless white mists out on the leas."
-  Edward Dowden, In September

" 'I grow old, I grow old,' the garden says.  It is nearly October.  The bean leaves grow paler, now lime, no yellow, no leprous, dissolving before my eyes.  The pods curl and do not grow, turn limp and blacken.  The potato vines wither and the tubers huddle underground in their rough weather-proof jackets, waiting to be dug.  The last tomatoes ripen and split on the vine; it takes days for them to turn fully now, and a few of the green ones are beginning to fall off."
-   Robert Finch

"The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees.  Offerings of ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time....  Mabon is considered a time of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World...."
-   Mabon by Akasha

"For summer there, bear in mind, is a loitering gossip, that only begins to talk of leaving when September rises to go."
-   George Washington Cable

"The goldenrod is yellow
The corn is turning brown
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down."
-  Childrens song

"Indian summer—
the old cat shares
her corner of the deck"
-   James Chessing  

"In that open field
If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,
On a summer midnight, you can hear the music
Of the weak pipe and the little drum
And see them dancing around the bonfire
The association of man and woman
In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie—
A dignified and commodiois sacrament.
Two and two, necessarye coniunction,
Holding eche other by the hand or the arm
Whiche betokeneth concorde. Round and round the fire
Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles,
Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter
Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes,
Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth
Mirth of those long since under earth
Nourishing the corn. Keeping time,
Keeping the rhythm in their dancing
As in their living in the living seasons
The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harvest
The time of the coupling of man and woman
And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling.
Eating and drinking. Dung and death.

Dawn points, and another day
Prepares for heat and silence. Out at sea the dawn wind
Wrinkles and slides. I am here
Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning."
-   T. S. Eliot,  Four Quartets, East Coker No. 2, 1, 1940

"There comes a time when autumn asks,
"What have you been doing all summer?"

Gardening and Trees

"Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away
Our hearts were ringing
In the key that our souls were singing.
As we danced in the night,
Remember how the stars stole the night away."
-   September, Lyrics by Maurice White, Charles Stemney and Verdine White

Autumn - Quotes for Gardeners

"All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow which brings it forth, soon slays with parching power."
-   Dante Alighieri

"I have come to a still, but not a deep center, 
A point outside the glittering current; 
My eyes stare at the bottom of a river, 
At the irregular stones, iridescent sandgrains, 
My mind moves in more than one place, 
In a country half-land, half-water. 
I am renewed by death, thought of my death, 
The dry scent of a dying garden in September, 
The wind fanning the ash of a low fire. 
What I love is near at hand, 
Always, in earth and air."
-  Theodore Roethke, The Far Field

"I don't wanna say goodbye for the summer
Knowing the love we'll miss
Oh let us make a pledge to meet in September
And seal it with a kiss
Guess it's gonna be a cold lonely summer
But I'll fill the emptiness
I'll send you all my love every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss."
-  Bobby Vinton

"The morrow was a bright September morn;
The earth was beautiful as if newborn;
There was nameless splendor everywhere,
That wild exhilaration in the air,
Which makes the passers in the city street
Congratulate each other as they meet."
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

"Have a good time, but remember,
There is dander in the summer moon above.
Will I see you in September
Or loose you to a summer love."
-   S. Wayne and S. Edwards, 1959 song lyrics

"What a pity flowers can utter no sound!—A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle ...  oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!"
-   Henry Ward Beecher 

"September morn
Do you remember how we danced that night away
Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play
September morning still can make me feel this way."
-   Neil Diamond and Gilbert Becaud

"Happy we who can bask in this warm September sun, which illumines all creatures, as well when they rest as when they toil, not without a feeling of gratitude; whose life is as blameless, how blameworthy soever it may be, on the Lord’s Mona-day as on his Suna-day."
-   Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

"All good things vanish in less than a day,
Peace, plenty, pleasure, suddenly decay
Go not yet away, bright soul of the sad year,
The earth is hell when you leav'st to appear."
-   Thomas Nash, Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600

"The tale of Mabon of Modron, the Welsh God, (the "great son of the great mother"), also known as the Son of Light, the Young Son, or Divine Youth, is celebrated.  The Equinox is also the birth of Mabon, from his mother Modron, the Guardian of the Outerworld, the Healer, the Protector, the Earth. Mabon was taken after he is a mere three nights old (some variations of the legend say he is taken after three years).  Through the wisdom of the living animals -- the Stag, Blackbird, Owl, Eagle and Salmon -- Mabon is freed from his mysterious captivity.  All the while Mabon had rested within his mother's womb; a place of nurturing and challenge.  With strength and lessons gained within the magickal Outerworld (Modron's womb), Mabon is soon reborn as his mother's Champion, the Son of Light, wielding the strength and wisdom acquired during his captivity."
-  Joyous Mabon 

"Harvest home, harvest home!
We've plowed, we've sowed
We've reaped, we've mowed
And brought safe home
Every load."
-   Harvest Home Song  

"The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook,

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

 By all these lovely tokens
 September days are here,
 With summer's best of weather,
 And autumn's best of cheer.

 But none of all this beauty
 Which floods the earth and air
 Is unto me the secret
 Which makes September fair.

T'is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget."
-  Helen Hunt Jackson, September   

"The true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes lilacs opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's Sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all seasons, memory, yes, it being the earth and water of existence, memory."
-   Truman Capote

"Tang of fruitage in the air; 
Red boughs bursting everywhere; 
Shimmering of seeded grass; 
Hooded gentians all a'mass. 
Warmth of earth, and cloudless wind 
Tearing off the husky rind, 
Blowing feathered seeds to fall 
By the sun-baked, sheltering wall. 
Beech trees in a golden haze; 
Hardy sumachs all ablaze, 
Glowing through the silver birches. 
How that pine tree shouts and lurches!
From the sunny door-jamb high,
Swings the shell of a butterfly.
Scrape of insect violins
Through the stubble shrilly dins.
Every blade's a minaret
Where a small muezzin's set,
Loudly calling us to pray
At the miracle of day.
Then the purple-lidded night
Westering comes, her footsteps light
Guided by the radiant boon
Of a sickle-shaped new moon."
-   Amy Lowell, Late September 

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.

To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight

"When the sun shouts and people abound
One thinks there were the ages of stone and the age of bronze
And the iron age; iron the unstable metal;
Steel made of iron, unstable as his mother; the tow-ered-up cities
Will be stains of rust on mounds of plaster.
Roots will not pierce the heaps for a time, kind rains will cure them,
Then nothing will remain of the iron age
And all these people but a thigh-bone or so, a poem
Stuck in the world's thought, splinters of glass
In the rubbish dumps, a concrete dam far off in the mountain..."
-   Robinson Jeffers, A Summer Holiday

"I trust in Nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility.  Spring shall plant and Autumn garner to the ends of time."
-   Robert Browning

"The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the Second, on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September,
In Camelot.
Camelot, Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot,
That's how conditions are."
- Camelot, Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner  

"It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears.  It is the amber light indicating the end of the great burst of
early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking forward to autumn.  Not that I have any objection
to autumn as a season, full of its own beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil
from what the first hint of autumn means."
-   Vita Sackville-West

"The birds laugh loud and long together
When Fashion's followers speed away
At the first cool breath of autumn weather.
Why, this is the time, cry the birds, to stay!
When the deep calm sea and the deep sky over
Both look their passion through sun-kissed space,
As a blue-eyed maid and her blue-eyed lover
Might each gaze into the other's face."
-  Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The End of Summer

"To many ancient people, the waning of the light signaled death.  For example, in Welsh mythology, this is the
day of the year when the God of Darkness, Goronwy, defeats the God of Light, Llew, and takes his place as
King of the world.  To this day in Japan, the equinox is celebrated by visits to the graves of family members,
at which time offerings of flowers and food are made and incense is burned.  The three days preceding
and following the equinox are called "higan," or the "Other side of the River of Death."
-   September Folklore  

"Leaves fall,
the days grow cold.
The Goddess pulls her mantle of Earth around Her
as You, O Great Sun God, sail toward the West
to the land of eternal enchantment,
wrapped in the coolness of night.
Fruits ripen,
seeds drip,
the hours of day and night are balanced."
-   Mabon Sabbat and Lore 

"September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn.  The cricket chirps in the noontide, making the most of what remains of his brief life.  The bumblebee is busy among the clover blossoms of the aftermath, and their shrill and dreamy hum hold the outdoor world above the voices of the song birds, now silent or departed."
-   September Days   By Rowland E. Robinson, Vermont.   

"T'is the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone."
-  Thomas Moore, 1779-1852, The Last Rose of Summer.

"Spring flowers are long since gone.  Summer's bloom hangs limp on every terrace.  The gardener's feet drag a bit on the dusty path and the hinge in his back is full of creaks."
-  Louise Seymour Jones

"Remember midsummer: the fragrance of box, of white roses
And of phlox. And upon a honeysuckle branch
Three snails hanging with infinite delicacy
-- Clinging like tendril, flake and thread, as self-tormented
And self-delighted as any ballerina,
just as in the orchard,
Near the apple trees, in the over-grown grasses
Drunken wasps clung to over-ripe pears
Which had fallen: swollen and disfigured.
For now it is wholly autumn: in the late
Afternoon as I walked toward the ridge where the hills begin,
There is a whir, a thrashing in the bush, and a startled
pheasant, flying out and up,
Suddenly astonished me, breaking the waking dream."
-   Delmore Schwartz, Remember Midsummer: The Fragrance of a Box

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summer's best of weather
And autumn's best of cheer."
-  Author Unknown 

"Autumn arrives, array'd in splendid mein;
Vines, cluster'd full, add to the beauteous scene,
And fruit-trees cloth'd profusely laden, nod,
Complaint bowing to the fertile sod."
-   Farmer's Almanac, 1818

"As lovely as soft bits of fragile crinkled silk,
These rosy blossoms, clustered thick 
Upon the heavy drooping boughs,
When shaken by a summer wind,
Drop down in swirling showers,
And drift awhile about the ground;
Then gathered into frothy heaps beneath the hedge,
They spread a frill of rosy lace around the green lawns edge."
-   Leda Clements, Crape Myrtle 

"September's Baccalaureate 
A combination is Of Crickets -- Crows -- and Retrospects 
And a dissembling Breeze 
That hints without assuming -- 
An Innuendo sear 
That makes the Heart put up its Fun 
And turn Philosopher."
-   Emily Dickinson, September's Baccalaureate 

"This bed of herd's grass and wild oats was spread
Last year with nicer skill than monarchs use.
A clover tuft is pillow for my head,
And violets quite overtop my shoes.

And now the cordial clouds have shut all in,
And gently swells the wind to say all's well;
The scattered drops are falling fast and thin,
Some in the pool, some in the flower-bell.

I am well drenched upon my bed of oats;
But see that globe come rolling down its stem,
Now like a lonely planet there it floats,
And now it sinks into my garment's hem.

Drip drip the trees for all the country round,
And richness rare distills from every bough;
The wind alone it is makes every sound,
Shaking down crystals on the leaves below."
-   Henry David Thoreau, The Summer Rain  

"Hail! Journeyer of the Heavens,
Queen of Brightness, King of Beauty
Gifts of gladness richly bringing,
Autumn sheaves and red leaves' fall,
Generous be the heart within us,
Open be our hands to all,
Justice to be in equal measure,
Harvest thankfulness our call."
-   Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Devotional  

"Come Roger and Nell,
Some Simpkin and Bell,
East lad with his lass hither come;
With singing and dancin,
And pleasure advancing,
To celebrate Harvest Home."
-  An Old English Harvest Song

"I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry -- eating in late September."
- Gallway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating  

"As Summer into Autumn slips
And yet we sooner say
"The Summer" than "the Autumn," lest
We turn the sun away,

And almost count it an Affront
The presence to concede
Of one however lovely, not
The one that we have loved --

So we evade the charge of Years
On one attempting shy
The Circumvention of the Shaft
Of Life's Declivity."
-   Emily Dickinson, As Summer Into Autumn Slips

"Drink a toast to Dionysus, the God of wine and ecstasy - The son of the Moon!  Gather with friends to celebrate the vine with a bottle of good wine and good cheer.  Catch the Moon's reflection in your cup and raise it up in salutation.  Now drink in Her essence and feel the presence of the God and Goddess."
-  September, The Harvest Moon, Moon Lore

"The definition of a Harvest Moon is: the full moon closest to the fall equinox.  The Harvest Moon was thus named because it rises within a half-hour of when the sun sets.  In early days, when farmers had no tractors, it was essential that they work by the light of the moon to bring in the harvest.  This moon is the fullest moon of the year.  When you gaze at it, it looks very large and gives a lot of light throughout the entire night.  No other lunar spectacle is as awesome as the Harvest Moon."
Harvest Moon Lore

"Tangled branches of
Shadowy hair
Wrinkle crisp lines
In the September air.

Black robins bobbing,
Dig out
From summer coarsen throats
A solitary song."
- Charlotte Ballard, The Maple Dances

"Healing summer heat
That comforts every bone;
Juicy summer fruits,
A frosty ice cream cone. 

Aroma of sizzling meat
Grilling on the barbecue,
Green lawns and summer flowers,
A gazillion fun things to do. 

Summer shorts and swimsuits,
Arms and legs are bare;
Summer’s sweet delights
Are welcome everywhere!"  
-   Joanna Fuchs

"A late summer garden has a tranquility found no other time of the year."
-   William Longgood

"September fattens on vines. 
Roses flake from the wall. 
The smoke of harmless fires drifts to my eyes.
This is plenty. This is more than enough."
-  Geoffrey Hill, September Song

"The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall." 
-  Autumn Leaves, Lyrics by Johnny Mercer and Jacques Prévert. 

"Taxi September along Jessore Road 
Oxcart skeletons drag charcoal load 
past watery fields thru rain flood ruts 
Dung cakes on treetrunks, plastic-roof huts 
Wet processions  Families walk 
Stunted boys  big heads don't talk 
Look bony skulls & silent round eyes 
Starving black angels in human disguise."
-  Allen Ginsberg, September on Jessore Road

"Rain, rain, welcome back,
We've missed your song,
Your splatter and smack
On our dusty brown clay, dry so long.
Since last May we've not had a drop,
From grey-black clouds swriling by,
Or smelled wet earth, or stepped in muddy slop,
Or listened to thunder from the sky."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Valley Spirit Journal, 2004

"There ought to be gardens for all months in the year,
in which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season.   
-  Sir Francis Bacon

Seeing and Gardening

"Well, the sun’s not so hot in the sky today
And you know I can see summertime slipping on away
A few more geese are gone, a few more leaves turning red
But the grass is as soft as a feather in a featherbed
So I’ll be king and you’ll be queen
Our kingdom’s gonna be this little patch of green
Won’t you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won’t you lie down with me now
September grass."
-  James Taylor  

Mabon: Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Rituals, Quotes      

"The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on September 18th in the year 2005.  What is the Moon festival?  Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qui jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface.  The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky.  The Emperor ordered a famous archer, Hou Yi, to shoot down the nine extra suns.  Once the task was accomplished, the Goddess of the Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal.  However, his wife, Chang Er, found the pill, took it, because Hou Yi was a tyrant, and was banished to the moon as a result.  Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.  Today, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing.  Not to mention mooncakes.  While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around."
-   Moon Festival,  Moon Festival,  Moon Festival Legends

"Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer,
Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing,
Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,
Ceaseless, insistent.
The grasshopper's horn, and far-off, high in the maples,
The wheel of a locust leisurely grinding the silence
Under a moon waning and worn, broken,
Tired with summer."
-  Sarah Teasdale, September Midnights 

Apples of the Immortals 

Apple Lore and Facts.  By Susa Morgan Black, OBOD. 

Apple Branch in Dianic Tradition 

Apples:  Iounn, Norse Goddess 

The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual.  By Alexei Kondratiev.  Citadel, 2003.  320 pages.  ISBN: 0806525029. 

Apple Tree Wisdom 

Golden Apple in Mythology 

Pomona: Roman Goddess of Orchards, Fruit and Plenty

Mabon, Autumnal Equinox, Alban Elfed

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"
-   Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Summer night -
even the stars
are whispering to each other."
-   Kobayashi Issa

"I can hear
September's
leaf
following
me
down
the asphalt
surface
of Locust Street
cartwheeling
on pins
when suddenly,
it stops --
just
to see
if I'll turn
to look."

"When the goldenrod is yellow,
And leaves are turning brown -
Reluctantly the summer goes
In a cloud of thistledown.

When squirrels are harvesting
And birds in flight appear -
By these autumn signs we know
September days are here."
-   Beverly Ashour, September

"For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.  For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad."
-  Edwin Way Teale

"Autumn begins with a subtle change in the light, with skies a deeper blue, and nights that become suddenly clear and 
chilled.  The season comes full with the first frost, the disappearance of migrant birds, and the harvesting of the season's last crops."
-   Glenn Wolff and Jerry Dennis 

"The leaves of brown came tumblin' down, remember
In September in the rain
The sun went out just like a dying ember
That September in the rain.
To every word of love I heard you whisper
The raindrops seemed to play a sweet refrain."
-  September in the Rain, Lyrics by Warren and Dubin 

"September leaf
Blushing...
Remembering...
The torrid kisses
...Of July
September leaf
Sensing winter
....And oblivion
Shivers...
And whispers
"July, my only love" "Say you remember."
- LaRetha Adams, Before Winter

"High Summer breathes her final, burning breath as Father Sun descends the western skies, and gathering clouds as gray as death blend into the haze that over all now lies.  This Alban eve brings promise of relief with showers soon, with breezes cool and clear.  And whether through conviction, or belief, I see Elfed’s presence drawing near.  The ground is deep with fallen leaves and nuts of White and Red Oak, and of Beech, that line and fill the footprints and the ruts which all along the wooded pathway reach.  First claim, of course, to chipmunk and to squirrel for bleak mid-Winter sustenance belongs, as all around old leaves descend and twirl about, through feathered autumn songs.  Yet here and there on Mother earth I spy an Acorn, or a Beechnut left for me, for stringing, when the snow begins to fly, to decorate Arthan’s Sacred Tree."
-   Oakwise, Nut Gathering at Alban Eve

"The summer days are fading, as they must
From endless hours to short and fleeting light
The bird's once bright, immortal tune, now cries
A melancholy aura to the dusk
The children fiercely climb, and dream, and race
Before their wild and unchained days depart
And yet beneath the zeal lies a half heart
For there isn't time, there's only enough space
The sun seems low, a hazy orange sphere
Now reminiscing sweetly of the days
When endlessly before you summer lay
And as in the deep, crimson dusk you stir
Your soul joins with the birds in wistful brood
Crying for lost summer days, for childhood."
-  Shannon Georgia Schaubroeck, The End of Summer

"Not every man has gentians in his house in soft September, at slow, sad Michaelmas.  Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark darkening the daytime, torch-like, with the smoking blueness of Pluto's gloom, ribbed and torch-like, with their blaze of darkness spread blue down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto's dark-blue daze, black lamps from the halls of Dis, burning dark blue, giving off darkness, blue darkness, as Demeter's pale lamps give off light, lead me then, lead the way."
-   D. H. Lawrence, Bavarian Gentians  

"September starts with Labor Day when goldenrod are in full bloom and the crops are being gathered.  It's harvest time on farms, when entire families helps in an intergenerational enterprise.  We hasten in anticipation of autumn chill and a possible early frost.  The heavier mists now hang over the valleys reminding us each morning that days are warm, but nights are cooler than the temperature of rivers, lakes and ponds.  Work, even garden work, includes beating the frost and a mutual sacrifice.  The birds flock in the evening and nature seems to anticipate what is in store.  We pick elderberries for pie, press cider, deep freeze the grapes and continue to use the solar food dryer for beans and apples.  We notice that the late tomatoes have a different taste this month.  In the more even temperature of the month the peppers seem to fill the stalks miraculously with each
passing day and hang heavy in yellows and greens and reds and purples.  Butternut and winter squash are ready to store; we prepare the greenhouse for the first transfers as frost approaches.  We trample the late summer woods nearby and find the acorns now falling from the oak trees.  We taste the most exquisite of all fruit in the wild, the wild plum.  And we hear the reports of hunters -- fathers and sons and daughters bonding by bringing home a mess of squirrel.  We see deer and rabbit and raccoon as well and hear the gobbling of the wild turkeys.  Yes, this is September."
-   Al Fritsch, S. J., Spiritual Growth Through Domestic Gardening

"Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson,
Yet our full-leaved willows are in the freshest green.
Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing
With the growths of summer, I never yet have seen."
-   William C. Bryant

"My life's long radiant Summer halts at last,
And lo! beside my path way I behold
Pursuing Autumn glide: nor frost nor cold
Has heralded her presence; but a vast
Sweet calm that comes not till the year has passed
Its fevered solstice, and a tinge of gold
Subdues the vivid colouring of bold
And passion-hued emotions. I will cast

My August days behind me with my May,
Nor strive to drag them into Autumn's place,
Nor swear I hope when I do but remember.
Now violet and rose have had their day,
I'll pluck the soberer asters with good grace
And call September nothing but September."
-   Ella Wheeler Wilcox, September 

"Grant, Goddess, thy protection,
And in protection, strength,
And in strength, understanding,
And in understanding, knowledge,
And in knowledge the knowledge of justice,
And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,
And in that love, the love of all existences,
And in the love of all existences, the love of Goddess and all goodness."
-   Iolo Morganwg, Gorsedd Prayer 

"Mellow fruiting ripeness,
Heavy-scented dampness
Hangs coolly on my skin
As I drink in autumn Awen.

Silver-misty morning,
Jewelled cobwebs sparkling,
And the sun proclaims the last
Of his yellow-golden warmth.

Blackbirds sing for joy,
Spiders doze in palaces,
And I stretch my lazy body,
Waking, crying welcome.

My love is soft damp autumn,
Red-purple rounding fruits,
Seeping through my curving,
Pulsing rapture through my blood."
-   Willow 

"There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

They took a plough and plough'd him down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.

But the cheerful Spring came kindly on,
And show'rs began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surpris'd them all.

The sultry suns of Summer came,
And he grew thick and strong;
His head weel arm'd wi' pointed spears,
That no one should him wrong.

The sober Autumn enter'd mild,
When he grew wan and pale;
His bending joints and drooping head
Show'd he began to fail.

His colour sicken'd more and more,
He faded into age;
And then his enemies began
To show their deadly rage.

They've taen a weapon, long and sharp,
And cut him by the knee;
Then tied him fast upon a cart,
Like a rogue for forgerie.

They laid him down upon his back,
And cudgell'd him full sore;
They hung him up before the storm,
And turned him o'er and o'er.

They filled up a darksome pit
With water to the brim;
They heaved in John Barleycorn,
There let him sink or swim.

They laid him out upon the floor,
To work him farther woe;
And still, as signs of life appear'd,
They toss'd him to and fro.

They wasted, o'er a scorching flame,
The marrow of his bones;
But a miller us'd him worst of all,
For he crush'd him between two stones.

And they hae taen his very heart's blood,
And drank it round and round;
And still the more and more they drank,
Their joy did more abound.

John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
Of noble enterprise;
For if you do but taste his blood,
'Twill make your courage rise.

'Twill make a man forget his woe;
'Twill heighten all his joy;
'Twill make the widow's heart to sing,
Tho' the tear were in her eye.

Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne'er fail in old Scotland!"
-  Robert Burns, John Barleycorn, 1782

"I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry -- eating in late September."
-   Galway Kinnel, Blackberry Eating

"An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.

I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones
Amaded, while a small worm lisped to me
The song of my marrow-bones.

Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was forever over.

Already the iron door of the North
Clangs open: birds,leaves,snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows."
-   Stanley Kunitz, End of Summer

"Good weather all the week, but come the weekend the weather stinks. 
Springtime for birth, Summertime for growth; and all Seasons for dying.
Ripening grapes in the summer sun - reason enough to plod ahead. 
Springtime flows in our veins.  
Beauty is the Mistress, the gardener Her salve. 
A soul is colored Spring green.  
Complexity is closer to the truth. 
All metaphors aside - only living beings rise up in the Springtime; dead beings stay quite lie down dead. 
Winter does not turn into Summer; ash does not turn into firewood - on the chopping block of time. 
Fresh fruit from the tree - sweet summertime! 
Gardens are demanding pets. 
Shade was the first shelter. 
When the Divine knocks, don't send a prophet to the door. 
One spring and one summer to know life's hope; one autumn and one winter to know life's fate. 
Somehow, someway, everything gets eaten up, someday. 
Relax and be still around the bees. 
Paradise and shade are close relatives on a summer day. 
Absolutes squirm beneath realities. 
The spiders, grasshoppers, mantis, and moth larva are all back:  the summer crowd has returned!
To garden is to open your heart to the sky.
Dirty fingernails and a calloused palm precede a Green Thumb." 
-   Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions

"Happily we bask in this warm September sun,
Which illuminates all creatures..."
-  Henry David Thoreau 

Mabon: Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Rituals, Quotes      

"Remember the days of our first happiness,
how strong we were, how dazed by passion,
lying all day, then all night in the narrow bed,
sleeping there, eating there too: it was summer,
it seemed everything had ripened
at once. And so hot we lay completely uncovered.
Sometimes the wind rose; a willow brushed the window.

But we were lost in a way, didn't you feel that?
The bed was like a raft; I felt us drifting
far from our natures, toward a place where we'd discover nothing.
First the sun, then the moon, in fragments,
stone through the willow.
Things anyone could see."
-   Louise Gluck, Summer

September

Links and References

Alban Elfed, Mabon, Autumnal Equinox Celebration:  Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Rituals, Quotes      

Almanac for Gardeners - Monthly Activities and Lore

An Annotated & Illustrated Collection of Worldwide Links to Mythologies, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Sacred Arts & Sacred Traditions.   By Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.  

Annie's Month of September

Apples and Apples Trees in Western European Myths, Legends and Folklore  

Apple History

Apples - A Teacher's Cyberguide 

August: Quotes, Poems, Links 

Autumn Equinox Celebration, Mabon: Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Rituals, Quotes      

Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon.  By Ellen Dugan.  Woodbury, Minnesota, Llewellyn Publications, 2005.  Bibliography, index, 208 pages.  ISBN:  0738706248.  VSCL. 

Autumn Festivals in India

Autumn Greetings, Customs and Lore    Mythology Myth*ing Links: Autumn Equinox.   A list of carefully selected and informatively annotated links about the lore and myths of the Autumn season. 

Autumn - Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Songs, Sayings, and Ideas for Gardeners   

Ballad of John Barleycorn

Can Teach: Songs and Poems - Fall  

Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for all Seasons and Reasons.  By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart.  Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, New Page Books, 2006.  Appendices, glossary, index, 288 pages.  ISBN: 1564148645.  VSCL. 

Cuttings - September     Short poems by Michael P. Garofalo.   

Daoist Health and Spiritual Practices 

Fairies, Elves, Nature Spirits:  Lands Spirits, Alfs, Wights, Lars, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 

Fall Harvest Page 

Flowers: Quotations, Lore, Myths, Resources

Gardening Poems - The Gay Gardener

Gardening Poems and Verse  

Gardening Quotations - The Gay Gardener

The Green Man (Powers of Spring and Summer): Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Information, Lore, Myths, Role  

The Green Wizard   

Halloween: Preparing for Samhain, Halloween on October 31st

Harvest Moon Page  

Harvest Moon Poems   

Harvest Moon - Wikipedia 

In Nature's Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth.  By Patricia Montley.   Boston, Skinner House Books, 2005.  Index, 379 pages.  ISBN: 155896486X  VSCL. 

John Barleycorn - Wikipedia

Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman)    Born September 26, 1774.

Joyous Mabon   

July:  Quotes, Poems, Lore, Celebrations, Garden Chores

June: Quotes, Poems, Lore, Celebrations, Garden Chores 

Lammas, Lughnasadh: Lore, Preparations, Rituals, Poems, Prayers, August 1st

Land Spirits, Nature Spirits:  Fairies, Elves, Alfs, Wights, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 

Leo's Lyrics Database

Lore and Magick of the Harvest  Asherah

Lore for September   Blue Corn Maiden and the Coming of Winter.  American Indian lore. 

Mabon, Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Fall Festival, Harvest Home 

Mabon: Extensive Bibliography, Links, Lore, Poems, Prayers, Preparations, Crafts, Rituals, Quotes      

Mabon:  Preparing for the Autumnal Equinox, Alban Elfed on September 21st   

Mabon: The Eight Seasonal Religious Celebrations of NeoPagans   

Samhain:  Preparing for Samhain, Halloween, on October 31st   

Months:  Quotes, Poems, Links, Gardening Chores 

Moon Festival - China

Moon Festival - China

Moon Festival Legends - China 

Nature Spirits:  Fairies, Elves, Alfs, Wights, Lars, Trolls, Dwarves, Sidhe, Devas, Otherworld, Little Folk, Ancestors, Ghosts 

One Old Druid's Final Journey - The Notebooks of the Librarian of Gushen Grove 

October:  Poems, Quotes, Lore, Celbrations

Onward to Autumn   

Origins of Labor Day  

Pathways in the Green Valley Blog.   By Michael Garofalo. 

A Poem a Day   By Helen H. Moore.   180 Thematic Poems and Activities that Teach and Delight All Year Long.  Scholastic, 1999.  ISBN: 0590294334.   136 pages.

Poem Hunter - September

Poetry for Fall

Poetry for Summer 

Preparing for Samhain, Halloween on October 31st

Quotes for Gardeners.   Over 3,500 quotes arranged by over 140 topics.

Mrs. Ritter's First Grade Critters - September   

Sacred Circles:  Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotations, Notes, Construction 

Seasonal Celebrations

September Folklore   

September Holidays

September Holidays   

September Holidays and Celebrations  Compiled by Sue LaBeau.  

September Holidays, Observances, Facts   

September Poem Hunter

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

September Romance Tips

Solar Calendar: Liturgy and Folklore (Rorian Tradition)

The Spirit of Gardening 

Summer Poetry and Poems (110 Poems) 

Summer - Quotes, Poems, Sayings and Quips for Gardeners   

Summertime and Spiritual Practices

Summertime Poetry   

Taoist Health and Spiritual Practices

Temples of John Barleycorn 

Trees: Quotations, Lore, Myths, Resources 

Ways of Walking

Wicca - Mabon Harvest  (Google Links)

Women's Poetry About Summer 

Zen Poems

Clichés for Gardeners

Weather Lore

Astrological Signs:  Virgo,  August 23 - September 22

Astrological Signs:  Libra,  September 23 - October 23

September  Birthstone:  Sapphire

September Gardening Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Removing dead and non-productive vegetable crops. 
Apply manure and compost to clay soils.  
Planting crops for late autumn harvest:  cabbages, peas, fennel,
     cauliflower, lettuce, swiss chard, onions, leeks, Chinese peas, and endive.  
Drying peppers and squash.
Start new strawberry beds.  
Dig up and divide garlic, perennials, iris, daylilies,  bulbs and onions.
Keep watering properly even as the weather begins to cool.  
Clean up all dead fruit.  
Fruit trees fed and sprayed with tonics. 
Seed lawns with rye grass for winter color.  
Remove any dead shrubs or trees.   
Dig holes for planting trees and shrubs.  
Purchase potted trees and shrubs for planting in autumn.  
Continue to mulch trees and shrubs.
Raking fallen leaves and add to compost pile.  
Purchase bulbs from nurseries.  
Feed lawn with slow release fertilizer. 
Remove spent blooms from roses.  
Weed vegetables and shrubs, mow lawns.  
Start to prepare sheds, tools, and equipment for Winter weather.
Repair roofs.  

September Gardening Chores and Tips

Oregon State University September Tips

Earth Wise Creations September Tips - Zone 9

Seasonal Garden Chores - Links - About.Com Guide

Top Garden Projects for September in the Pacific Northwest by Ed Hume

52 Weeks in the California Garden by Richard Smaus

September Gardening Tips from Ortho

The Garden Helper Tips for September - Northern U.S.

Gardening Tips - September - New York Botanical Garden

Tips from the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, California

Tips Month by Month Gardening Chores List by Dale Reid (All Zones)

Farmer Fred's Monthly Gardening Chores for Central California

The Gay Gardner - September

September Garden Chores - Links - Google