Autumn is a restless time

The local woods are full of florescent orange. Firearms deer season opened this morning. We've heard a couple of shots and seen a couple of pickups parked in nearby road ditches. At least for opening weekend, local weather is almost comfortable, but without "tracking snow." November in the North Country is deer time for many. For others it may be a time to go.

in November, geese get the urge for going

Photo by J. Harrington

In my younger days, I've sometimes spent opening weekend of deer season in a waterfowl blind, feeling foolish wearing florescent getting to and from the blind. One year, as cold as the past few days have been, we had to use the duck board to keep the water around the decoys from freezing solid, until we finally had enough sense to pick up and go.

You may have noticed we've added a countdown 'til Thanksgiving to the right sidebar to remind us of how many days we still have to focus on what there is in our lives to be thankful for. Today I'm thankful for two people who have created some works that have a common theme I hadn't noticed until this morning, although it's been staring me in the face for years.

On the opening page of the November chapter of A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold writes about "If I Were the Wind". The concluding lines on the page, in the version I've been reading for years, are:

IT IS WARM BEHIND THE DRIFTWOOD NOW, for the wind has gone with the geese. So would I—if I were the wind.

Today, (re)reading those lines, I immediately remembered Joni Mitchell's wonderful song Urge for Going, whose lyrics are today's poem.  I hope you find as much beauty in your life as Aldo and Joni have brought into mine, especially on cold, cloudy November days leading up to Thanksgiving, when many of us suffer an urge for going, but we never seem to go.

Urge For Going

by Joni Mitchell

This lyric has been formatted exactly as Joni preferred it to appear (capitalization, punctuation, line breaks, changes in wording, etc). Joni collaborated with Lisa and John Sornberger by making these changes for presentation in their book, Gathered Light.

I awoke today and found
the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky
then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
and all the trees are shivering in a naked row...

I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go

I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I had a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground
And bully winds came around
and pushed them face down in the snow...
He got the urge for going
And I had to let him go

He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
And summertime was falling down and winter was closing in

Now the warriors of winter give a cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying all that lives is gettin' out
See the geese in chevron flight
Flapping and racing on before the snow...
They've got the urge for going
And they've got the wings to go

They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

I'll ply the fire with kindling now
I'll pull the blankets up to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out
And I'll bolt my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime
And have her stay for just another month or so...
But she's got the urge for going
So I guess she'll have to go

She gets the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And all her empire's falling down
And winter's closing in.

And I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is Falling Down.

© 1966; Siquomb Publishing Company

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