SUMMER SONNET

After the brief bluebells and daffodils
And the simmering blossom-swell of spring,
Summer comes galloping over the hills,
The sun beating through a billion wings,
Bringing it on, singing it in with long
Days, hot spells, short showers and old folksong
Grown new in the swaying fields of barley,
Gathering in the harvest finale.
But, before the fall of the merry scythe,
We will roll in the grass by the bandstand,
Carelessly young again, laughing and tanned,
To sing the song of leaf and fruit so blithe:
Summer is a-coming in, year on year -
And see – the trees, the trees, the trees are here!


(2010)


So much poetry grows out of doubt and melancholia, and I’ve heard songwriters say that it’s somehow easier to write sad rather than happy songs – and I wonder why that is. Perhaps when we’re happy we’re too busy being happy to reflect too much about why we are. And then many positive poems tend to be tinged with sadness when the experience is being recalled in nostalgia.

I often want to write something really bright and upbeat but, being of a rather pessimistic disposition, I don’t usually find that easy to do. Let me tell you, I must be ‘in a good place’, as they say, to have come up with this!

‘Summer Is A-Cumen In’ is one of the very oldest of English folk songs. It features on one of my favourite soundtrack albums, ‘The Wicker Man’, which I was playing whilst writing this poem.

I never seem to tire of photographing Abbey Park just a couple of minutes away from where we live in Leicester and the picture included here is of one of my favourite views.