Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Late Summer Poetry

Posted on a Wednesday, because it didn't want to wait until Thursday:

Procreation
Summer is swelling here.
Everything is growing fat.
Even the cicadas that fly at
my face as I walk through our
garden each morning are large,
fighter planes driven blindly
in a battle to mate.

Native fruit are multiplying
fat and red in our courtyard.
They fall spreading themselves in
sticky piles on the pavers.
This morning a Tui sat in
our Pohutukawa screaming at
me for interrupting his breakfast
as I filed past with an
overflowing recycling bin
clutched tightly in my hands.

I can feel a coolness in the
early morning that hints at
autumn soon to come.
In this garden of mine
I am the only one
not seeking to add
to the gathered mass of life.
I do not swell like this
late summer that flaunts
its pregnant belly as it
settles on our hill.

I am outside of the
cycle of nature as
much as I am in it
during this season
of procreation.

8 comments:

Catherine said...

I love the idea of late summer having a pregnant belly. This poem is so evocative of New Zealand with the tui, pohutukawa etc (not so many pohutukawas in Christchurch - I really miss them)

Pip said...

Pohutukawa are a guilty pleasure here in Wellington. They are in fact a pest plant not native to the region, and they are risking the Rata because they crossbreed with them. However that doesn't stop me loving them!

Anonymous said...

'I am outside of the
cycle of nature as
much as I am in it'

I like the balance of it, in a Yin/Yang sort of way.

rel said...

Pip
Redolent with succulent images of natures abundance.
I particularly like: "I do not swell like this
late summer that flaunts
its pregnant belly as it
settles on our hill."
That is good, really good!
rel

Crafty Green Poet said...

I enjoyed this very much, especially the description of the cicadas, the mention of the recycling bins and the ending.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Ah! NZ! We here are still in the last throes of winter. It's good to read something warm and lush!

Kimberley McGill said...

"I do not swell like this
late summer that flaunts
its pregnant belly as it
settles on our hill."--- what a pleasure to read! You made this place come alive in my imagination.

Mary J. said...

kimberly posted the same lines I wanted to compliment! And Mike did too!

such a good poem.