   When I was growing up, each fall my mom would talk about “October’s bright blue weather.” It made sense to me to refer to it that way because much of the time the skies were, indeed, a lovely blue during October. Meanwhile, the crisp air and falling leaves seemed to make the sky an even more vivid shade of blue.
  Today, I got to thinking about my mom’s oft-repeated line and wondered if it came from a poem. An Internet search showed that it is the title of a poem and that the line is repeated several times throughout. The first stanza of the poem, written by American novelist and poet Helen Hunt Jackson, goes likes this:
 O sun and skies and clouds of June
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather
   I have to agree with Jackson. A glorious October day like today beats out any June day. Maybe it’s not so much that the weather is nicer, but that there’s’ a greater urgency to enjoy it this time of year. I know the cold, damp days of November will be here all too soon and that sub-zero December days won’t be too far behind.
   The forecast promises a good dose of bright blue weather this weekend and I hope to spend a lot of time outside it.  This is a lovely time of year on our farmstead with the zinnias, cosmos and arigolds still blooming and bright leaves scattered across the lawn. I think decorating with some orange pumpkins and yellow corn stalks would complete the picture.
This too was my Mom’s favorite poem that she recited oftento me. Being born in the month of October made it even more special to her. Truly the skys are bluer than blue this time of year!
In memory of my Mom …Lillian (Durantini) Tarr 10/10/22 to 07/29/99
I, too, was born in October and came across this poem when I was about twelve and have loved it ever since. It doesn’t seem to matter where you live, the skies of October clear and bright and form a perfect backdrop for the colors of autumn. It has been more then fifty years now since I first read that poem, but not an October passes that I do not think of it and take the time to re-read it.
I had to memorize this poem in the fifth grade. I have always loved it since that time. To test us, the teacher had us to remove everything from our desk top except a pencil and one sheet of paper, and then we wrote the poem. Lucky for me, I had a sharp memory in my younger days. Today, 2 Oct 2011 is especially bright and blue outside. Crisp air to go along with it.