Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

109. while the glossy outer leaf masses were eerily lit up with an iron-gray light from above - The clouds increased and took on a colder bluer tone, and at times, tentative spatters of rain fell, and ceased, and began again. A vibrant whirring from behind and above the shed announced the flight of blackbirds, probably assembling for the Autumnal flight south - The west was streaked with distant falling rain; and I thought of the birds flying toward it, and wondered how it would feel to them to suddenly fly into a shower - and I thought of their long flight south, and dreamed as I did as a boy, that it would be fun to be one of them, and set out on the long journey over the wide September fields and valleys, and how cozy it would be to be one of a great flock of one's comrades.

     Eventually the rain came down so hard that I was driven indoors.[i]

                   Sept. 13 -

     The season has arrived when it is my custom to finish up pictures and frame them for the Fall season in New York. No sooner do I start to turn my mind to the many problems arising from this activity, than at once I am filled with regret, for the scenes and natural events pertaining to the September season which I must necessarily forego. With each year the feeling has grown stronger, until this, I have become convinced that somehow I must arrange matters so that I will have a free mind at the