Autumn Equinox
September 22 - October 7
In this exuberant episode, Alexis and Kit are joined by Annie Patterson and Peter Blood of “Rise Up & Sing” in discussing songs and music of the harvest season. Our co-hosts explore the community-driven traditions around the harvest and thanks-giving, and celebrations of the equinox around the world. In Hiro’s Corner, we gain perspective on rice paddies drying up.
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Autumn Equinox Spotify Companion Playlist
Poems Featured in this Podcast
The Harvest Moon by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their actual neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves
The song-birds leave us at summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And the pipings of the quail amid the sheaves
****
Autumn, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (excerpt)
Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them --
The summer flowers depart --
Sit still -- as all transform'd to stone,
Except your musing heart.
***
We’ll stroke the gentleman
With our naked sword
Wherewith we shear meadows and fields
We shear princes and lords
If the gentleman will stand beer and brandy
The joke will soon be over
But, if our prayer he does not like
The sword has the right to strike
— Unknown
***
Last night the reapers from their harvest home sang
And stored the full garners with Grain
The woods and the echoes with merry sounds rang
As they bore the last sheaf from the plain
-- By Ann and Jane Taylor and Adelaide O'Keeffe
***
Corn Dolly by Minnie Lambeth
Tis but a thing of straw, they say
Yet even straw can sturdy be
Plaited into a doll like me
And in the days of long ago
To help the seeds once more to grow
I was an offering to the gods
A very simple say indeed
Of asking them to intercede
That barn and grainery o’erflow
At harvest time with fruit and corn
To fill again Amalthea’s horn
***
"The king and high priest of all the festivals was the autumn Thanksgiving. When the apples were all gathered and the cider was all made, and the yellow pumpkins were rolled in from many a hill in billows of gold, and the corn was husked, and the labors of the season were done, and the warm, late days of Indian Summer came in, dreamy, and calm, and still, with just enough frost to crisp the ground of a morning, but with warm traces of benignant, sunny hours at noon, there came over the community a sort of genial repose of spirit - a sense of something accomplished." — Harriet Beacher Stowe
***
The Corn Song (excerpt), by John Greenleaf Whittier
Heap high the farmer’s wintry hoard!
Heap high the golden corn!
No richer gift has Autumn poured
From out her lavish horn!
Let other lands, exulting, glean
The apple from the pine,
The orange from its glossy green,
The cluster from the vine;
We better love the hardy gift
Our rugged vales bestow,
To cheer us when the storm shall drift
Our harvest-fields with snow.
***
Everywhere there are
ancestor sprits - everywhere there are
spider lilies
— Morio Suzume 森尾雀子
***
Up into the sky
a penetrating azure--
red spider lily
— Yamaguchi Seishi
***
In the drained fields,
How long and thin
The legs of the scarecrow
— Buson
***
Gleaning the rice field
They work toward
The sunny places
--Buson
***
Awakening
Dawn, and I am completely still, weightless
In that space where dreams drift away
Quietly in the moments of daybreak.
My senses, aware something stirs
As morning comes bending the light softly
To whisper a new day.
Imperceptibly, energy breezes in the treetops,
A dance that proclaims nature’s presence
Before high noon.
There is a change in that first cool day
That follows a long summer’s heat.
A time to listen and watch the differences Fall brings
In the parallels to cycle life.
The afternoon of recognition, a shift in paradigm.
Awake, prepare before day’s end.
Bounty comes, before Winter’s night.'
The Seasons in Art
The Harvest by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565).
Musicians & Music Featured this Episode
Shelley Otis, Harpist
Shelley Otis is a harpist, pianist, arranger, composer; seven-time winner of the annual Couple’s Choice Award, multi-year winner of the Knot’s Best of Weddings. Alexis first met Shelley when they were seated next to each other in Grenoble, France. When it came time to create this episode, Alexis thought that Shelley’s beautiful harp would be absolutely perfect. Learn more about Shelley and her services on her website.
Roma Ransom
Roma Ransom plays eclectic bohemian world folk-jazz music that aims at transcending our audience and invigorating the crowd with tunes that can transport the listener. Learn more on their website.
Larry Piper
Larry Piper is known on the internet as a spouse, pop, guy in the choir, physical chemist, and computer/web dilettante. He lives in Reading, MA with his spouse and his little Jug dog, Edamame.
He used to sing his children to sleep. But, since his granddaughters live far away, he decided an antidote to their distance was to record a series of 'Grampa Songs', which their parents could then play for them. The selection used in this pod cast is much in the style of 'Grampa Songs'.
Annie Patterson & Peter Blood / Rise Up and Sing
Annie Patterson has a rare voice that spreads hope, stirs your soul and makes you glad to be working together for a better world. She is a singer songwriter, old timey banjo player as well as jazz vocalist with the swing trio, Girls from Mars. Her long time partner, Peter Blood, often accompanies her on fiddle & guitar. Together, Annie & Peter have played a central role in helping create a quiet revolution of group singing in North America. A new documentary film, We Began to Sing, follows their musical journey as well as the work of friend and mentor Pete Seeger in creating peace and social justice through communal singing. Learn more on their website.
Visual Examples of Seasonal Words
