September brings with it memories of two portentous events: in September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, World War 2 followed. September, 11th, 2001 brought another fateful, never to be forgotten event. This year [2017] September is seeing the aftermath, and continuation of horrendous flooding in southern Texas and Louisiana, USA, as well as even worse floods, and higher death tolls, in India and elsewhere in the world.
It's sad that September carries such bad memories.
Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!
(Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September)
September, so named because once upon a Roman time it was the 7th month.
(Septem = 7th in Latin). The first three weeks of September fall within the tropical zodiac sign of Virgo, with just one week left for Libra.
You know, September, as a month, here in the northern hemisphere, doesn't strike me as being a typically Virgoan time, or for that matter Libran. Yes, I know that in mythology Virgo holds a sheaf of corn, and in most places September is harvest time, but September is also when, in many locations, the leaves fall from the trees, and life starts winding down. September is not a neat Virgoan month. Leaves pile up all over the place, then chilly winds blow them messily around. If anything, Virgo has to describe the work of clearing up the leaves. September - the kids go back to start a new school term. The boys, in Britain anyway, play soccer and rugby again, after a summer of playing tennis and cricket. They often get themselves very muddy in the process - how Virgo is that? In the USA Labor Day (that is, to my mind, Virgoan) with a holiday weekend marks the move from August to September.
One of Frank Sinatra's loveliest recordings, September Song..."And it's a long long time from May to December, and the days grow short when they reach September..." describes our life's September, our own autumn/fall. On the back of the old LP cover to the Sinatra album September Of My Years, Stan Cornyn wrote:
"....September can be an attitude or an age or a wistful reality. For this man it is a time of love. A time to sing. A thousand days hath September"Goodness me, those liner-note writers were good! It's a big loss that CDs don't have the space for their purple prose; and now, in 2017, even CDs are becoming defunct, along with even the briefest of liner notes.
Sinatra, though a Sun Sagittarian, for me remains a September man. Often melancholy, whether for the dying of the year, or for a lost love, a memory, or a feeling - yet with hope always for what is still to come. Perhaps that is the true essence of September.
I'll resist posting again Sinatra's well-known September Song. Instead I've chosen another singer, another song. This could come as a surprise to those who knew the vocalist best as an actor in TV and film, but his stage career began in musicals. He had been a favourite of mine for years, I was so sad when he left us in 2004. Here he is with Try to Remember - and - which song writer would ever be able to resist that rhyme? The song has some nice, very September-ish, nostalgia.
Good thoughts. September Song, a fine poem. I lament the loss of the liner notes too.
ReplyDeleteI like September. I think of it as a time of transition. Relief from the wicked summer heat is just around the corner, possibly with rain after a month or two of time that is usually parched. Mental colors turn from whites and pastels to richer earth tones. Scholars go back to school. Local entertainment seasons start anew. It is the beginning of the long slide into the holidays.
ReplyDeleteEven the not-so-pleasant significant dates signal transition. The horrors of 9/11 changed our nation. My now-husband suffered a life-altering injury in September.
It is a month of personal transitions for me. I married my first husband in September. He and I and our first child all change our age in September. I ended a long job and began a new, life-changing one.
My favorite September song is of the same name and by Earth, Wind and Fire.
I like September.
anyjazz ~ Thanks - yes, and fortunately you do have lots and lots of liner notes stored for entertaining reading matter, along with the treasures accompanying them. :-)
ReplyDeleteKaleymorris ~ That's a good and positive spin on your personal September K-M! Yes transition it is, with Autumn equinox embedded in it underlining the transition for us.
ReplyDeleteYou've got me remembering my own Septembers : my mother's birthday and that of my first husband were in late September (a day + years apart). I married my first husband in September (not a good transition that!) Years later in a happy relationship and a good settled job I always looked forward to September, it was the month during which we'd almost always be heading off for good times on a two-week vacation, more often than not to the Canary Islands.
The older I get the more lonesome I get in September, a bitter sweet month. Facing winter, the lovely (last?) Summer behind. Short, dark, cold days ahead. Transition especially for me now. The dread of change seeps in to my bones in spite of positive thinking.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Wisewebwoman ~ Bitter-sweet - yes, that it is, and at our time of life more intensely bitter-sweet with each year that passes. I feel for you, WWW - truly! But I'm confident that you'll carry through your 2017 important and necessary transition with all the confidence your strong, bright, warm Leo Sun can muster...and that's a lot!
ReplyDeleteI hope that next September we can meet here again and take stock. (((Hugs )))