October Garden by Christina Rossetti

With Autumn comes the vibrant display of majestic color of fall.  The roses will be blooming again for their final glory.  I share my sentiment with Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) during the rose’s final display.

In my Autumn garden I was fain

To mourn among my scattered roses,

Alas for that last rosebud that uncloses

To Autumn’s languid sun and rain

When all the world is on the wane!

Which has not felt the sweet constraint of June,

Nor heard the nightingale in tune.

Broad-faced asters by my garden walk,

You are but coarse compared with roses:

More choice, more dear that rosebud which uncloses,

Faint-scented, pinched, upon its stalk,

That least and last which cold winds balk;

A rose it is though least and last of all,

A rose to me though at the fall.

God's Garden

This is my favorite garden decoration. I had one in NY (below) and I just bought the one above for my present garden. 

I do feel nearer to God when I’m in the garden. I feel relaxed and forget about anything else. I’m in my own little world. I’m happiest when I’m out there working the soil and enjoying my plants.

THE Lord God planted a garden

In the first white days of the world,

And He set there an angel warden

In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,

That the hawk might nest with the wren,

For there in the cool of the even

God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden closes

With their shade and their sun-flecked sod

And their lilies and bowers of roses,

Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth, –

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden

Under the olive-trees

Where the angel of strength was the warden

And the soul of the world found ease.

                                             

                                  By Dorothy Frances Gurney