Archive for July, 2011

Literary Mileage
Summer – A Cloak from the Loom of the Sun

Monday, July 18th, 2011

I love summer! People complain about the heat, but I say, ‘bring it on.’ Twenty summers in Tulsa, OK acclimated me to heat. Winter is the season I complain about. Last week I spent several days on the Northern Neck of Virginia—between the Potomac and Machodoc Rivers—enjoying the heavy cloak of summer. One morning I wrote,
“I hear the soft rhythmic lap of water on the shore; birds chirping over my morning coffee; a warm humid breeze rustles the leaves of the oak tree to my left, and sunlight dazzles the water in front of me. An iridescent seam of wave folds over itself to lap the shore. A boat’s wake pushes the waves in faster, more emphatically. A fish jumps, creating a round ripple effect, quickly gone.”
The African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, to whom I am indebted for the title of this post, describes summer beautifully here:

In Summer
Oh, summer has clothed the earth
In a cloak from the loom of the sun!
And a mantle, too, of the skies’ soft blue,
And a belt where the rivers run.
And now for the kiss of the wind,
And the touch of the air’s soft hands,
With the rest from strife and the heat of life,
With the freedom of lakes and lands.

I envy the farmer’s boy
Who sings as he follows the plow;
While the shining green of the young blades lean
To the breezes that cool his brow.
He sings to the dewy morn,
No thought of another’s ear;
But the song he sings is a chant for kings
And the whole wide world to hear.

I can feel that sunny cloak and see the sky’s blue mantle…I hope you’re enjoying these fleeting days of summer…
(Dunbar was born in 1872 and was one of the first African American poets to gain national recognition. You can read the full text of his poem here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20893)

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

 

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »

Copyright © 2011 Judy Leaver. All rights reserved. Design by Adam Sweeney Creative.