"August" by Helen Hunt Jackson

 

August 2016

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Silence again. The glorious symphony
Hath need of pause and interval of peace.
Some subtle signal bids all sweet sounds cease,
Save hum of insects’ aimless industry.
Pathetic summer seeks by blazonry
Of color to conceal her swift decrease.
Weak subterfuge! Each mocking day doth fleece
A blossom, and lay bare her poverty.
Poor middle-agèd summer! Vain this show!
Whole fields of golden-rod cannot offset
One meadow with a single violet;
And well the singing thrush and lily know,
Spite of all artifice which her regret
Can deck in splendid guise, their time to go!

"Dark August" by Derek Walcott

Dark August

     By Derek Walcott

So much rain, so much life like the swollen sky
of this black August. My sister, the sun,
broods in her yellow room and won't come out.

Everything goes to hell; the mountains fume
like a kettle, rivers overrun; still,
she will not rise and turn off the rain.

She is in her room, fondling old things,
my poems, turning her album. Even if thunder falls
like a crash of plates from the sky,

she does not come out.
Don't you know I love you but am hopeless
at fixing the rain ? But I am learning slowly

to love the dark days, the steaming hills,
the air with gossiping mosquitoes,
and to sip the medicine of bitterness,

so that when you emerge, my sister,
parting the beads of the rain,
with your forehead of flowers and eyes of forgiveness,

all will not be as it was, but it will be true
(you see they will not let me love
as I want), because, my sister, then

I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones,
The black rain, the white hills, when once
I loved only my happiness and you.

Butterflies visiting . . .

The interesting thing about this photograph is the butterfly's proboscis, it's
the long tube extending from the butterfly's face to the flower on which it sits,
and is used to extract nectar from the flower. You can also see the butterfly's 
antennae, the two protruding wire-like appendages on its head. 

The garden's progress: mid-August

When August begins the days grow shorter; now it's getting dark by 8 p.m. There is also the smell of August in the air, it's something I've noticed since I was a child; that smell of August coincided with shorter days and told me that summer didn't have long to last and then it was back to dreaded school in a few weeks and the end of my freedom. Now, the insects are singing at night, I hear them before bed around 11:30 p.m. and again at 5 a.m. I used to think fireflies were finished their business by mid-July but this year I saw them at the beginning of August; they say it was a hotter than usual summer but it seemed an average summer for heat except for the fireflies. Now we are on the downward slide to fall.

The garden today

Beautiful weather today after two days of cold (+15 C); no mosquitoes, many birds singing, a brilliant red cardinal, some other birds visiting the bird bath, the garden at its height. And life is good.

The garden on the hottest day of the summer . . .

 Garden photos taken on Saturday, 06 August 2022; +34 C:

The garden at the beginning of August

 Photos taken of my garden on August 5, 2022.

Honey Bees and Flowers in Mid-August

Mid-August and everything is lush and full of life. Honey bees are visiting hollyhocks, flowers are blooming, life is good. 

Flowers at Belmore

At Concordia (Loyola Campus)

At Concordia (Loyola Campus)

These are hollyhock flowers and day lilies.