I really love summer, especially the earliest part, and I know that I’m not alone. The grass is green, the trees and flowers are blooming, birds are singing, bugs are buzzing. And a favorite poem that reminds me of these things.

Pied Beauty
By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

The sun rises early and sets late, and the puppy and kitty don’t let me sleep in!

What A Morning
faleshia murphy

I wake up to a fly buzzing in my ear
The birds are chirping
The ducks begin to quack
As you can hear the dogs barking
Here comes the cats who meow in this musical

The wind blows and make the chimes ring
Welcome to the sweet sounds of summer morning

Then there are the summer nights …

Back Yard
Carl Sandburg, 1878 – 1967
Shine on, O moon of summer.
Shine to the leaves of grass, catalpa and oak,
All silver under your rain to-night.

An Italian boy is sending songs to you to-night from an accordion.
A Polish boy is out with his best girl; they marry next month;
to-night they are throwing you kisses.

An old man next door is dreaming over a sheen that sits in a
cherry tree in his back yard.

The clocks say I must go—I stay here sitting on the back porch drinking
white thoughts you rain down.

Shine on, O moon,
Shake out more and more silver changes.

Summer is vacation time, and fishing time …

A Boy and His Dad
Edgar Guest, 1881 – 1959
A boy and his dad on a fishing-trip—
There is a glorious fellowship!
Father and son and the open sky
And the white clouds lazily drifting by,
And the laughing stream as it runs along
With the clicking reel like a martial song,
And the father teaching the youngster gay
How to land a fish in the sportsman’s way.

I fancy I hear them talking there
In an open boat, and the speech is fair.
And the boy is learning the ways of men
From the finest man in his youthful ken.
Kings, to the youngster, cannot compare
With the gentle father who’s with him there.
And the greatest mind of the human race
Not for one minute could take his place.

Which is happier, man or boy?
The soul of the father is steeped in joy,
For he’s finding out, to his heart’s delight,
That his son is fit for the future fight.
He is learning the glorious depths of him,
And the thoughts he thinks and his every whim;
And he shall discover, when night comes on,
How close he has grown to his little son.

A boy and his dad on a fishing-trip—
Builders of life’s companionship!
Oh, I envy them, as I see them there
Under the sky in the open air,
For out of the old, old long-ago
Come the summer days that I used to know,
When I learned life’s truths from my father’s lips
As I shared the joy of his fishing-trips.

And memories of special summers, long ago.

A Special Time
Jessie Ziegle

Once upon a time in summer
Twas on the farm at Grandma’s place
Two children came to spend some time there,
To run and play and freedom taste.

In their swinging under the big tree,
They talked and fought as children do;
Upside down and down side up
In their swings as the summer flew.

They explored their cave and hideouts
Peering out at the enemy
Living in a private world,
Happy and completely free.

A living picture in my mind
Of happy sounds of glee
Their faces mirroring the thought
In all the world, just you and me.

It was such a special season
With children playing on the lawn
But joy was mixed with sadness
Summer ended and they were gone.

For children, each day is like an open book
With exciting pages to be lived.
How privileged to be a guide
And teach a child – God really is.

There are questions to be answered,
So many things to know and do.
What fun it is to guide them
Into learning something new.

When a child looks up in wonder
Looking at the rainbow high
Asks the question, “did God make it?”
Can you satisfy that why?

Oh, it costs us some living
But God knows how to bless.
I am just a babe at giving
He fills my cup with happiness.