To the Light of September
by W. S. Merwin
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
it seems there is a tipping point, here, farther north in august, where nothing exactly has changed and yet something inside of us recognizes that something is changing and the big change is about to come. it feels like intuition but must reside more deeply in our animal parts, don't you think, our ability to read the signs of plants and animals, sun and earlier night, that we have mostly forgotten? it's thrilling to note these changes. i wonder if it is thrilling for the bear, the porcupine, the minx.
ReplyDeleteyour photo reflects the gentler September light or seems to reflect it (i wonder if i would have recognized September light if you had posted this in November). i wonder how much of what we know is only what we think based on suggestion.
xo
erin
My favorite time of the year, Ruth....
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