The first of three poetry titles we're expecting in the coming week or so arrived in the driveway this afternoon: Robyn Sarah's wonderful Pause For Breath. Sarah's ninth collection, it offers meditations on the times and on time itself, offering up what I think some of the most quietly beautiful poems of her career. The book itself turned out quite beautifully, printed as it was by the Coach House crew.
To celebrate its launch on this last weekend of summer, perhaps then a poem on summer's passing.
Once was full summer
Once was full summer.
Down the valley blew
a cheesecloth wind,
screening the curds of cloud
from the whey of haze.
Soon the mists burned off.
Sun sipped the dew
from the long grasses,
then laid them limp with heat;
waxing towards mid-day,
made them sweat
their own juices,
meadow-sweet.
Sun made his rounds
under the blue dome,
striding his realm
while all afternoon
hills cooled facing hills
with their shadows.
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