Friday, August 29, 2008

POETRY FRIDAY: Three Songs at the End of Summer


The summer of 2008 has been an especially gray, damp, and rainy one in my area of New England. Fortunately, my husband and I planned our Maine vacation for the best weather week of the season. Now that the end of summer is upon us, we’re having glorious sunny, dry days with temperatures in the seventies and low eighties--perfectly lovely weather that doesn’t usually arrive until September.

For Poetry Friday this week, I selected poems by one of my favorite adult poets, the late Jane Kenyon.


Three Songs at the End of Summer
by Jane Kenyon

A second crop of hay lies cut
and turned. Five gleaming crows
search and peck between the rows.
They make a low, companionable squawk,
and like midwives and undertakers
possess a weird authority.

Crickets leap from the stubble,
parting before me like the Red Sea.
The garden sprawls and spoils.

Across the lake the campers have learned
to water ski. They have, or they haven’t.
Sounds of the instructor’s megaphone
suffuse the hazy air. “Relax! Relax!”

You can read the rest of the poems here.


At Wild Rose Reader, I have a review of Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees: School Poems and links to other poems perfect for sharing with elementary students at the beginning of the school year.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Charlotte’s Library.

Happy Labor Day weekend!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sigh. I love the gothic feel of Kenyon's poetry.

Yesterday when I walked Jack (beagle), the grasshoppers were parting before me, just like the crickets in this poem. Ick. But great image.

Thanks for sharing, Elaine.