oh, November

November taps against the glass with long, fog-pale fingers

November creeps up on me quietly, as she does every year. It is morning, a few collapsing pumpkins are dotted along the street below my window, blue skies have faded into grey and the beech tree wears the last of its gold like a tattered shawl. November taps against the glass with long, fog-pale fingers. She whispers ‘I am here, let me in’.

I love her more each year, this gentle, quiet month, a slow exhaled pause before the year ends with festive lights and fireworks. She swishes her long pearly cloak, pulls its hood up over her silver hair. November is serene and unassuming; she asks not for adulation, she needs no ornamentation, she speaks in a soft murmur – her words are easily missed.

If you let her in when she knocks at your window, November will enfold you in a calming embrace, her chill breath damp against your cheek. Allow her to take you by the hand and lead you towards the misty woods. Breathe her scent of leaf mould and woodsmoke as she walks with you between high hedges, along the path lined with feathery fluff and the brittle remains of umbellifers. ‘Look at the trees’, she will tell you, if you’ll hear her, and you will see branches like lace against the clouds.

November allows space for thoughts to gather — she is a page the colour of empty sky, a pen that drips black ink in spidery threads. She offers retreat, she hints at divination.

November creeps up on me quietly, as she does every year. She taps against the glass with long, fog-pale fingers. Beneath her hood, I glimpse a face once loved and lost. I open up my window and I invite her in.

{ Inspired, always, by My November Guest)

Thank you for your enthusiastic response to the Chasing Fog book club! It will start at the end of this month, and will be free for all subscribers (with additional bonus prompts, behind-the-scenes and more for available to paid subscribers). If you’d like to get a copy of the book before book club begins, you can do so from any of these places — Blackwells offer free international delivery. Or you can request it from your local library.