Autumn Artistry by Joshua T. Baylis

  The woods’ once-budding verdure, young and green,

  Is now in slow-aged, red-gold fullness crowned.

  Stirred by breath of breezes blown, unseen,

  Their leafy rustling voices softly sound:

  “With time, does ripened fruitfulness abound;

  Mature and mellow, beauties overflow;

  As waiting bears forth wonder, there is found

  A work of artistry, emerging slow,

Whose shape and form and colour steadily will grow.”

  Their minstrel music fills the forest glades,

  Those gold-roofed halls of many pillars high,

  Carpeted in red, with dappled shades

  Refined by agèd light soft-falling nigh:

  The slow-set Sun, in radiant reply,

  Now gilds all things in riches thousandfold,

  Adorning cloudy racks that sweep the sky,

  Bestowing ancient splendour, seasoned, old,

In red-gold fullness over field and wood and wold.

© Joshua T. Baylis 2023

Josh is based in Oxfordshire, UK, with his wife and son, has been a guitarist for about fifteen years and took a leap into writing poetry about three years ago. He gravitates toward themes of the symbolism of the seasons, the grandeur of nature, and the certainty of resurrection life to come through chaos and confusion. As a physicist by background he enjoys combining creativity with a methodical approach to writing. He also loves complex and imaginatively rich stories and wishes his bookshelves were limitlessly big. Josh works in research support and has previously worked as a church-based ministry trainee.