Of Preludes and Parting

 

Morning, you murmur on midnight’s mute hem

Threading the skyline in whispers red-gold

Soon you will crown noon’s azure diadem

Ere, dusk surrenders its swoon to your hold

Giver and taker of summer’s high note

Maestro of anthems that tongue cannot sing

You place you music in nature’s glad throat

While we loiter long in its rhythm and swing

For beneath our laughter we know full well

This is the prelude to summer’s farewell

Wild with extravagance you preen the rill

Sketching the etching of pristine tree-top

Softly you spill silhouettes to the hill

Muting earth’s palette in heaven’s backdrop

Tempest of greeting and parting unite

Up from the east, down from north, west and south

Darkness dissolves in your tremor of light

Polestar of summer melting in your mouth

We cannot keep you; your distraction swells

In passionate prelude to fondest farewells

Summer; God’s love-song to soften the miles

Leading to autumn and winter’s duress

Kindly the visage of Providence smiles

There are no seasons to His tenderness

Over the valley in shimmers of mist

He strikes the timbrel of this first-last day

We cannot leave it crumpled and half-kissed

Thus we toss our silent sorrow away

This is the hour of living full well

Tasting the prelude to summer’s farewell

© Janet Martin

This morning parting is on my mind...parting of a favorite month and parting of friends that fly back to Africa tomorrow.

Every page of middle-age

is turning way too fast

Live, laugh, love, we know the truth

Summer will soon be past!