I always seem to say this, but it has been a very long time since I participated in Poetry Friday. An exciting writing project is keeping me busy, but it’s summer, and I feel the need to celebrate this brief but beautiful season. True, it’s July and not June, but June is notoriously wet and cold here in British Columbia, so we’ll pretend the title is July instead, because that’s when summer finally starts here on the wet coast.
June by John Updike
The sun is rich
And gladly pays
In golden hours,
Silver days,
And long green weeks
That never end.
School’s out.
The time Is ours to spend.
There’s Little League,
Hopscotch, the creek,
And, after supper,
Hide-and-seek.
The live-long light
Is like a dream,
and freckles come
Like flies to cream.
We’ve been blessed with a wonderful summer this year – a few hot days, but also some much-needed rain. So many are sweltering under an oppressive heat wave, and I’m deeply aware of how very fortunate we are to live where we do.
How has summer been in your neck of the woods?
I also feel fortunate to live in a cooler spot, in Upstate New York, and can avoid the worst of the heat. I love Updike poem. I hope summer is like that for some. Enjoy August!
We have a small child, who has made summer so much more magical with his enthusiasm and joy. I’d forgotten just how magical something as simple as running through a sprinkler can be!
Hot today, but I also feel fortunate to live in a relatively cooler location. There is a flowering tree outside our back door, and once its limbs droop with heavy, white blossoms, I feel summer’s end approaching — this year leaving me melancholy and a bit relieved. Thank you for sharing the delightful John Updyke poem – freckles like flies to cream!
So many of us have complicated feelings about summer, don’t we? We yearn for it and dream about it during the long cold winter months, then when it comes, we remember just how unpleasant the endless heat can be! But at the same time we mourn its passing. Still, I can’t imagine living in a climate without these magical seasonal changes.
Hi Jane, what fun to see you here! We’ve had a cool and rainy June, but July has been getting hotter, not unexpected nor as hot as others in the US. I love this poem’s summertime, “and after supper/hide-and-seek”.
It’s been too long! Life has kept me busy, but in a good way.
It sounds like so much the States has been sweltering! Cool and rainy is a rare treat these days.
Jane, it’s nice to meet you here in Poetry Friday. I’m not always regular either, and today I didn’t post, but I’m just visiting others. I love “freckles come like flies to cream” in Updike’s poem. All the best on your writing project. By the way, I love your bio. I’m a tea-drinker too.
Sometimes it’s just nice to be surrounded by fellow poetry-lovers, right?
I’m actually enjoying a nice cuppa as I type this, this morning’s choice is a strong English Breakfast with milk. 
Hi Jane, I live in Northern Wisconsin which we fondly refer to here as the Northwoods. It’s been a cool and pleasant summer here, aside from the haze we’ve received due to wildfires smoke drifting down from Canada. Still, we are grateful each day to live in such a hospitable spot on a lake. Thanks for the poem you offered! It’s lovely and reminds me of my childhood near Rochester, New York.
The wildfires have been terrible this year! It’s normally smoky here all summer long, but this year we’ve been so lucky, and I’m so, so thankful!
I’m delighted to learn Mr. Updike wrote poems that are pubbed & well known.
To answer your lovely season Q: We live in a summer world where rain visits enough, much to our liking but also it arrives enought the rest of the year, making me smile at Updike’s line:
“And long green weeks.”
This describes most of our weeks in North Florida, except maybe for a few in winter.
I love thinking of Canada as we’ve enjoyed sweet trips far east of you to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec & Ontario, but our most lovely time & most recent, was in British Columbia.
I’m glad you dipped into #PoetryFriday but I’m smiling more to know you are enjoying creative times with an exciting writing project.
Finally, appreciations for being a book recommender to children in your library. Of the many wonderful CA publishers, I’m quite fond of House of Anansi Press & Annick Press.