October’s Bright Blue Weather
A poem by Helen Hunt Jackson
O suns and skies and clouds of June,
and flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour,
October’s bright blue weather.
When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
belated, thriftless, vagrant.
And golden-rod is dying fast,
and lanes with grapes are fragrant.
When gentians roll their fringes tight
to save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs,
without a sound of warning;
When on the ground red apples lie
in piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
are leaves of woodbine twining;
When all the lovely wayside things
their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
late aftermaths are growing.
When springs run low, and on the brooks,
in idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
of woods, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
by twos and threes together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October’s bright blue weather.
O suns and skies and flowers of June,
count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October’s bright blue weather.
********** The End **********
About the author:
Helen Hunt Jackson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on 15 October 1830 and died in San Francisco, California, on 12 August 1885. She was a U.S. poet and writer who became an activist for improved treatment of the Indigenous peoples by the USA national government.
Educational poetry:
My identical twin brother, Alex, and I were required to memorize the above poem in our 6th level class (primary) at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. Our teacher, who was one of our all-time favourites, used poetry to improve our English writing skills as well as our general comprehension of the English language. With our school located in Virginia and this poem reflected landscape and wild natural growths common to Massachusetts.
Unfortunately, there were no American Sign Language (ASL) manual signs for almost all the items, therefore, we had to fingerspell manually virtually the entire poem. Alex loved the poem but resented the fingerspelling aspect. He still remembers his remark that he felt as a child in kindergarten learning the ABC’s because of all the fingerspelling involved. As this was our first poem to memorize, our teacher always inspected every other poetic assignment to make certain fingerspelling didn’t dominate the process again.
Enjoy your last week of October’s Bright Blue Weather!
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride: Guys Without Boxers!
Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Friday, October 31, 2025, and the proposed topic is: “Bottoms-Up! October, 2025!”
ReNude Pride: Guys Without Boxers! 