The weeping, wan, waste-paper leaves of white birch
Slight-wind-wafted, the sweet petticoat rustle
Of young woodland, a soft walking underfoot,
And bobbing with wrens.
The bitter, waxy, sudden, beech-hedge magic
Lurching from winter-brown and spring nudity,
From a skeleton to dark-green armoury,
Those cut-about leaves.
The fractal insanity of the oak leaves,
And the mad, sappy, flapping of sycamore;
And see! The bushes come alive with buzzing –
The great song of bees.
And as the startled deer, staring from the field,
Can’t believe the rush of wind through bending grass,
I am surprised by you, you, brilliant you,
As sudden as sky!
Sometimes noon-bright, sometimes so precious fading
Evening-soft, music-riven, late-birds-calling,
You walk into my life like darling summer.
All eyes and soft skin.
And you begin to weave poetry through me,
Making cross-threads of June-and-July colours,
Until all my growing thoughts become your name,
Hour-long and day-long.
Love-making, the rush of swift birds and squirrels,
The lazy trickling of some half-hidden burn,
The sudden shock of a breeze, you are summer,
And all is – summer!
Author notes
Written June 27th, 2006
In a list
What did you think
Comments
1 - 18 of 18
-
Oh please feel free
-
May I please capture this for Poetry Planet? Summer is nearly gone and we must give credit to summer before we lose it to autumn! This is a magnificent poem and I do love it so much!
-
Ea, thank you. I used to be totally captivated by this form, using it over and over again. It gives a freedom to play with language almost as one can in free verse, but a structure to impose discipline; it is all rhythm, and I love the way the final line always offers a cadence.
-
Wonderful, Marie. I have just been out walking under the linden trees which are a hum with bees. I recoginize this lovely form as the same one you used in "For Celestine" and have been meaning to go look up more on it... now I will do that.
-
Scribs, I'll come and spend winter in TX - I can visit Toots too!
-
Summer can be miserable in Scotland - the only way you can tell is that the rain gets warmer LOL. But right now it is warm and bright, and the leaves, the bees, the deer are all as I described. The love too.
Thank you for your comment.
-
Nice write Mairi. Summer unlike winter, rapes me with its heat, turns me into a beetroot. Give me winter anyday. Hugs
-
Brava! Brava! You haven't posted a Sapphic for a long time. I was lulled into forgetting they were in there...LOL...They are lovely, and this is no exception. Summer in Scotland must be a good bit more temperate than Summer in Houston. I could never think of my summer in these loving glowing terms. I know there is more to the poem; I'm just focused on the seasonal part. Wonderful job! Toni
-
he he he - very neat Merc! Thank you.
-
delightful
I love your sapphics, Mairi, and this one is certainly at the top of the list. A consummate piece of summery consumation,
All the best,
Mercury Rising -
Michael - I see I managed to suck you into one of my beloved Sapphics. I haven't written one for a while, but as I drove to work today I had phrases ringing in my head all to do with summer, and about someone special. I started to write fairly free-form, but suddenly I felt it needed that rolling eleven-by-eleven-by-eleven with a cadence of five. And this is the result! I am so glad you liked it.
-
A marvelous creation full of alliteration, internal rhyme and other devices that I cannot put a name to. A really terrific piece of poetry that tells of Summer so wonderfully well. Seemingly effortless, but quite well thought out and brilliantly executed. In the 5th stanza what is a gorgeous poem about summer magically becomes a love poem and then the final stanza seems to be of Summer again, or still a lover, or lover/summer? Really quite excellent!
-
Melodies, you would set the whole world to music if you could!
-
Poe, they are pretty good, but not half as wonderful as the precocious lover!
I am glad you liked the poem.
-
I am glad you liked it, Travis. But did you catch the romantic undertones?
-
This lovely poem does feel so much like summer that I can feel it in my bones. Really very true and allows the reader to see it all, as you describe it so beautifully!
-
You've turned Summer into a romance as if a precocious lover...
I love this.. and how warmly you've attached it to a poem...
My Summer's are somewhat different it's all about the heat
and the mosquitos, so glad yours is much nicer... lapoe..
-
I absolutley loved this poem. Summer is my favorite season, and you captured it so well. You wrote about all things I love about summer. I really liked what you did here. Fantastic job.
Adding your comment:
1 - 18 of 18
8 old applause
