Poem for A Summer.

part one:

I should like to pray
and bow
to the summer goddess and ride
and move on the colors that pass behind her eyes:
mysterious depths
in nebulas of crackling green
lightning blue snapshots
flashes transforming the residual murk of a year’s passing.

please goddess, god
take the anxious heart and
turn it golden like the honey’d moon as sickle knife
rising later and later in an eastern sky
turning and birthed anew again.
fill the anxious heart full of full moon light
golden like her honeyed hair
fragrant with peony petals and late blooming lilacs of the eastern green mountains.
take the anxious heart:
cut through all that has died
and wants for trimming.

beyond fears in cold darkness,
to the shining self I say:
trust in images beyond
trust in the deep fleeting summer dark shadows now
trust in fragrance on the night wind in moments suspended,
sustained beyond dreams, beyond the mind.

we bow to this:
we bow to flower and scent
these long days and broad sunsets
we bow in the break of darkness
the ease and repose of such long days as these.

silly mind, it is summertime!
it is not your realm to rule, but rather
the time of the heart!
the time of the spirit!

spirit will abide these choices
yes, the spirit will abide.

part two:

the spirit does not ask for deservement.
it consumes and dances for its own pleasure
for its own play of light
in dark corners long with shadow
it calls
and sings,
dancing golden in warm moonlight
it will abide with no apology
blossoming
and it flourishes
the spirit flourishes!

may it be of morning glories and
wild purple trumpet flowers curling upwards to the sun
may it be of ornamental blossoms and rich
red poppies or bindweed in light pink blooms and sweeping reaches:
the choking beauty of life unleashed
may the spirit be of marigolds, and rose petals
of night blooming jasmine and day blooming honeysuckle
of spicy nasturtiums and the sweet nectar of tiny strawberry blossoms
may the spirit be of columbines in pink and purple offset
by rocky mountains of wild sage and wild daisies and
black eyed susans and dandelions and sunflowers and
sweeping long grasses that move in the wind full and heavy with life.
may it be, all of it, and we within the colors of nature.

there is no fear in the sweetness of the perfumed night,
no.
the season burns a new day
ripening time on a vine
and fear burns away.
this is summertime!

there is only heat and play in the dog day panting
the soul that reaches is free
beyond fears and doubts,
leaving darkness
to the cooling hands of another time.

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Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: Flickr