Autumn Stories

End-of-Summer Poem
-Rowen Bastin Bennet

The little songs of summer are all gone today.
The little insects instruments are all packed away:
The bumble bee's snare drum, the grasshopper's guitar,
The katydid's castanets-I wonder where they are.
The bullfrog's banjo, the cricket's violin,
The dragonfly's cello have ceased their merry din.
Oh, where is the orchestra? From harpist down to drummer
They've all disappeared with the passing of the summer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you see the wind blow?
Neither you nor I,
But when the leaves start falling
we know the winds near by.
-author unknown

I'm a witch hee hee
I'm a witch hee hee
With a pointed hat on my head
I jump on my broom and I sweep the sky
when the children are in bed.

Autumn Fires
by Robert Louis Stevenson

In all the other gardens
and all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
see the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
and all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Burning Times
In the cool of the evening they used to gather
'Neath stars in the meadow circled near an old oak tree,
At the times appointed by the seasons of the earth
And the phases of the moon.
In the center often stood a women, equal with the others,
And respected for her worth.
One of the many we call the witches,
The healers and the teachers of the wisdom of the earth.
The people grew through the knowledge she gave them-
Herbs to heal their bodies,
Spells to make their spirits whole.
Hear them chanting healing incantations,
Calling forth the wise ones,
Celebrating in dance and song.

There were those who came to power through domination
And they bonded in their worship
Of a dead man on a cross.
They sought control of the common people
By demanding allegiance to the Church of Rome.
And the Pope declared the Inquisition.
It was a war against the women whose powers he had feared.
In this holocaust against the nature people
Nine million European women died.
And the tale is told of those who by the hundreds
Holding together chose their death in the sea.
While chanting the praises of the Mother Goddess
A refusal of betrayal-
Women were dying to be free.

Now the Earth is a witch and the men still burn her,
Stripping her down with mining and the poisons of their wars.

Who Were the Witches?
by Bonnie Lockhart (c) 2002
Bonnie Lockhart BMI
www.bonnielockhart.com

Who were the witches?
Where did they come from?
Maybe your great-great-grandmother was one.
Witches were wise, wise women they say,
And there's a little witch in every woman today.

Witches knew all about flowers and weeds,
How to use all of their roots and their seeds.
When people grew weary from hard-working days,
They made them feel better in so many ways.

When women had babies, the witches were there,
To help them and hold them and give them sweet care.
Witches knew stories about how life began,
Do you wish you could be one? Well, maybe you can.

Some people thought that the witches were bad,
Some people feared all the power they had.
But the power to help and to heal and to cure
Is nothing to fear, it is something to share.