In offering this poem, I am aware that many parts of the country are not experiencing the bounty of the late summer season for reasons of flood and drought and fire. My heart is with you in lament.
Blessed be the crickets and katydids
whose voices are a choir.Blessed be the cicadas,
their song the sound of summer.
Blessed be the bluebird fledglings,
making their way in the world.
Blessed be the groundhogs,
fattening on windfalls before winter's long sleep.
Blessed be the bumblebees
slipping through the lips of turtlehead blossoms.
Blessed be the goldfinches
gleaning seeds from coneflowers and Susans.
Blessed be the ruby-throats
feeding and fighting on their way south.
Blessed be the mistflower
offering nectar to swallowtails and skippers.
Blessed be the winterberry
providing for hungry birds.
Blessed be this late summer stillness,
slack tide between the seasons.
Blessed are we
who open to the bounty that surrounds us.
