Hymn of Autumn

I wrote “Hymn of Autumn” in one hour.¹ In the fall of 1997, it fell out of me with the excitement of discovery as Autumn became the way I was loved. Fall, not that we have much of one in the South², is my favorite season of the year. This is a hymn to God Who made it, expressing my desperation for Him.

I’ve inserted footnotes on some of my inspiration for the song for those of you curious types.

Hymn of Autumn

Breathe on me like autumn wind
Through the boughs of the elm and beech
Sad the scent of the summer’s end
Sweet the comfort and hope you offer me
Wrap me around with your breath
Love stronger than death
Come blow away my fears
Brush away my tears

Ravish me like an autumn storm
Rolling thunder to silence me
Leave me broken and breathless, torn
Bend me bolted and blind till I can see
Fall upon me with your rain
Joy that sings through pain
Welcomes the showers down
Laughs at their distant sound³

Shine on me in the autumn sun
Till I blush like October leaves
Letting fall all the shame I’d done
Casting off all the weight that wearied me
Baring my arms to the skies
Gaze with gentle eyes
Sing me to sleep in peace
Wake me at spring’s release⁴

Romance me in the autumn night
Waltz me to the crickets’ song⁵
Blow soft kisses down starry light⁶
Gather me to the arms I’ve wandered from⁷
Remind me the good love can be
Mend my memory⁸
Savor this silent hour
Modest with all its power

1. This doesn’t happen often. Normally a finished song requires a laborious process, sometimes over the course of years. “Bullfight” was another one that seemed to fall out of me quickly. [↩]
2. Which is also why I am allowed to refer to autumn crickets. [↩]
3. If you’re reminded of John Donne’s 14th Holy Sonnet, then I did something right here. His imagery – both military and conjugal – reminds one of Jeremiah and Hosea.
   HOLY SONNETS: XIV.
   Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
   As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
   That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
   Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
   I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
   Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
   Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
   But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
   Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
   But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
   Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
   Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
   Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
   Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. [↩]
4. Autumn has provided me with quite a bit of ink. This stanza, for instance, repeat a lot of the imagery found in Free. [↩]
5. Indebted to Mark Heard here – another songwriter I miss terribly. In his song “No One But You” he writes: “Crickets’ song goes on and on / Etude impromptu”. Who thinks of stuff like that! Amazing. [↩]
6. Probably owe a reference to one of the Romantics here, I suppose. But they’re so ingrained it’s difficult to decipher whether I’m referencing something they said or seeing and speaking differently because I listened to them. It’s their fault either way, I guess. [↩]
7. I must again remind everyone of Rich Mullins. His song “Home” is the first place I heard the word gather arranged so that me was its object. Gather – pick up piece by piece, collect, arrange – Me – the first person singular pronoun I once thought referred to a single entity. Gather me implies “I’m not whole! There are broken pieces of me all over the place.” The phrase has wonderful economy. [↩]
8. That’s mine. I love alliteration apparently. And I need my memories mended, as does everyone else. [↩]

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