These Are August Days...(part 3)

These Are August Days (part 1) was composed at the beginning of August

These are August Days (part 2) was composed in the middle

Now here at the close of this most enchanting month of all, Part 3!

 

 

  

 

 

These are the days when summer plays a love song on heart-strings

When time is blurred like the whirred motion of humming-bird wings

When garden wealth thrills healthy appetites with vegetables

When fruit of toil spills from the soil in rainbow-miracles

When zinnias grin, so dapper in sun hats, cheery and bright

When the shrill trill of crickets will permeate day and night

When bounty jarred and clouds unbarred inspire thankful prayers

When children play the livelong day unbothered by life’s cares

And morning waits to part dawn’s gates and rouse the rosy sun

When eventide hastens its stride before work-day is done

When canning pots are always hot; tomatoes in their prime

Are plucked and peeled and cooked and sealed for winter’s summer-time

When blooms and butterflies and skies lure eyes to feast and feast

Because today will soon fall prey to Bygone’s hungry beast

When we, with senses charged enlarge the spectrum of delight

To scale joy’s stem, inhale its gem with awe-struck appetite

These are the days easy to praise He from Whom blessings flow

Where bronzed and purpled fronds and shadow steeples steal the show

Where we cannot bear to look far beyond the now and here

In case we miss the present bliss of August’s atmosphere

…of kitchen sauna days upon us that we dare not waste

Of glean and measure garden treasure, simmer, stir and taste

Vinegar, sugar and pickling spice aromas waft

While flower bowers shower earth with tears, tattered and soft

The culmination of elation before autumn’s toll

Reverberates through weathered grates to spark in summer’s soul

An endless happiness because of what was and will be

As a key change starts to arrange next August’s symphony

Where there could be no harvest without first the planted seed

Where winter’s wise hiatus replenishes nature’s need

Where, while the isle to August-next, seems lost on some far shore

Aha, soon we will be perplexed to find it near once more

…futile to yell, fret or rebel against time’s resolved pace

Better to taste the holy haste of life’s momentous grace

And linger longer, in our younger morrow’s yesterdays

Where on a blur of blue larkspur petals, Für Elise plays

These are the days when mint-tint haze drapes daybreak’s slow entrance

When here and there a scarlet flare spikes green-leaf dominance

When something in the air akin to weeping, bids us fight

To savor the full flavor of each moment-morsel bite

To drink in the crescendo of love before letting go

Before we empathize with good-byes strewn in petal-snow

To labor for far more than temporal four-season surge

To remember the Ember that no human hand can purge

Ah, these are summer’s glory-days, ablaze with golden rod

With gladiola-hallelujah handiwork by God

With stubbled sweep of grain-field reaped, slopes steeped in hopes of corn

Beauty and duty tangle in spangles of morn to morn

These are the days that constantly amaze and edify

Reminding us, amidst the fuss, of lifetimes slipping by

For our days are likened to the flower of the field

We fade and fall and all but the soul, to dust’s Must will yield

These are the day we cherish as they perish, wonder-blithe

A living prayer of life aware of death’s encroaching scythe

While wild grass strums That which becomes what vanishes away

Where dust and ash soon snuff the splash of summer’s workaday

These are the days highlighting ways that steal childhood and youth

Time’s evidence climbs fences; graces faces with its truth

A dusky deep of tides that sweep and ebb with sweet delight

Leaving behind a bowl of rinds stripped of each juicy bite

© Janet Martin

Happy Last day of August 2022! 

What a stunning debut!

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Heb.13:8