Here's a poem I wrote last year in an attempt to capture the feeling of autumn as a homeland of the human heart.
Searching For Home
We pass through two fields,
but it feels like more,
like all the fields in heaven and on earth,
because our path has been gilded by golden light
on golden fields
Butterflies, monarchs of the open meadow,
pass among the goldenrod,
and twine around one another,
and spin off on their own quests
Above: the fertile green of a lavish region
Hillsides extend their flanks
like the green man of the forest reaching for the sky,
embracing the valley in which we proceed
on our regal, healing progress
And higher still, beyond the deep and furry green of the
treeline
the rich blue vault holds the sun in its place
while evolving nuances of air
linger like forgiveness,
teaching us to be as we are and should be,
Creatures who breathe in
and let it out.
This year I'm trying to use this space to compile a photo album for the weekend of Oct. 12-14, in four parts: 
1. The boardwalk in Parson's Marsh, found off Under Mountain Road (in Stockbridge and Lenox). Pictured in the top photo, the boardwalk allows you to walk into a wetlands without damaging the environment or needing rubber boots (which also damage the wetland). It leads through the trees, past the dense shrubbery and out to the cattails and sword-grass, where a railed viewing platform gives you a view of open water, water fowl, the woods and hills on the other side of the water, and the bare trees at the water's edge where we saw nests last year.
2. Photos of Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox. The first of these images below depicts fall colors reflected in the water of Pike Pond. Then two images of the sanctuary's Beaver Pond: some open water with surface vegetation; and a view of how the steady year-after-year incursion of wetland plants narrows the remaining coves of surface water. Finally a view of the mountainside, at the bottom of this page. For more about Pleasant Valley, see the previous post at https://prosegarden.blogspot.com/2019/10/autumns-garden-more-light-on-october.html
3. Photos of Bullard Wood, which wraps around a carefully maintained path that takes visitors down to the banks of Stockbridge Bowl and the along the lake, linking up with another lovely preserve called Gould Meadow.
In a bright, late-morning sunny stroll, Anne and I got off the main woodsy, shaded path and explored a long grassy meadow we've somehow overlooked before. We found lots of color in the woodland margins, as shown in the images below. The meadow lead us eventually down to the lake, where we stared hypnotically at the lovely, light-splashed water.
4. On Monday evening, with the sun declining, Sonya and I walked through the a favorite conservation area across the road the Tanglewood, called Gould Meadow. Them we turned into the woods, got a little lost in the gloaming trying to follow a new path that leads visitors to a piece of property owned by Kripalu -- where a prominent sign forbids entrance into private property. We retraced our way back to a path that tooks us down to the Stockbridge lake at a particularly quiet point.
Twilight outdoes itself on this evening: Purpling the night, as the trees sing in the soft exhalations of a seasonal apex and then shake loose a gentle rain of leaves that coat the surface of the lake, like tiny boats on an ancient harbor.
Driving home, just to wrap up the evening, we surprise a black bear on the side of the road. No photos of this encounter. (Unfortunately? Fortunately?) Both bear and humans are happy to go their own way.
Beautiful
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