Saturday
Sep122009
Poetry: "To the Light of September"
Saturday, September 12, 2009 
POEM
To the Light of September
When you are already here
you appear to be only
a name that tells of you
whether you are present or not
and for now it seems as though
you are still summer
still the high familiar
endless summer
yet with a glint
of bronze in the chill mornings
and the late yellow petals
of the mullein fluttering
on the stalks that lean
over their broken
shadows across the cracked ground
but they all know
that you have come
the seed heads of the sage
the whispering birds
with nowhere to hide you
to keep you for later
you
who fly with them
you who are neither
before nor after
you who arrive
with blue plums
that have fallen through the night
perfect in the dew
Source: Poetry Foundation
Reader Comments (4)
Oh, Elaine.
I've been having time off the computer this week...this is such a beautiful thing to read on a cool (Antipodean) September morning. Thank you. X
Beautiful, Elaine. Coincidentally just before I read this I found out we have a national poetry day in the UK on the 8th October. Wonderful how poetry speaks to us in a way others words just don't.
That's a lovely poem. It makes autumn sound so gradual. Our spring is full of strong winds and occasional heatwaves. It doesn't feel gradual at all, but like it's rushing in!
Hello, dear Lucy. I'm so happy I picked a poem that both of us can relate to, even though we are in opposite seasons. I too was offline for almost 48 hrs. A healthy change, though I miss being able to check for & reply to comments.
Hi Tess. How wonderful to have a national poetry day. I'm going to mark it on my calendar even though I'm on a different continent.
Yes, autumn is coming gradually & so far September has worn two faces -- a warm, sunny one like yesterday and a cool, cloudy, threating-to-rain day like today.