Brr...last night the rain and wind blew into town, and this morning is mighty chilly!  I wish I could stay home this morning and read my new poetry book that arrived in the mail yesterday, wrapped in an afghan by the fireplace.  Instead, I'm searching for a warm sweater to wear to work!  And to make it worse, I have a dentist appointment this afternoon.  Rain, cold, wind, gray skies, and the dentist.  What did Wordsworth say?   Sometimes the world is too much with us!  Here's a fitting poem for today, by Canadian poet Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, who wrote this poem in the late 1800s.  I've condensed the poem, and if you are interested in reading all the verses, you can find the poem here http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/autumn-winds-2/comments.asp.

Autumn Winds

“Oh! Autumn winds, what means this plaintive wailing
Around the quiet homestead where we dwell?
Whence come ye, say, and what the story mournful
That your weird voices ever seek to tell—
Whispering or clamoring, beneath the casements,
Rising in shriek or dying off in moan,
But ever breathing, menace, fear, or anguish
In every thrilling and unearthly tone?”

“We come from far off and from storm-tossed oceans,
Where vessels bravely battle with fierce gale,—
Mere playthings of our stormy, restless power,
We rend them quickly, shuddering mast and sail;
And with their, stalwart, gallant crews we hurl them
Amid the hungry waves that for them wait,
Nor leave one floating spar nor fragile taffrail
To tell unto the world their dreary fate.”

“And, what of that, ye cruel winds of Autumn?
Spring will return again with hope and mirth,
Clothing with tender green the budding branches,
Decking with snowdrops, violets, the earth;
And, oh! sweet hope, sublime and most consoling,
The sacred dust within those graves shall rise
In God’s good time, to reign on thrones of glory
With Him, beyond the cloudless, golden skies.”