Summer Exhale
The sky is a blue canvas
for the tallest sunflowers
A hummingbird whirs
in search of bright colors
Leaves glide from trees
like swallowtails surfing
Bird calls grow faint
and unconvincing
The muted cheers of crickets
invade the stillness
An indigo-tailed chameleon
scurries to hide
Weeds drop seeds
and tomatoes crack open
A boastful chicken crows
about her henhouse production
An iridescent-winged fly
uses my leg as a runway
Clouds close in
and mushrooms appear
where lady slippers and trillium
and bluebells once were
A moon sail rises
A lovesick sun sets
A hammock swing rocks
and my eyes glaze over
I haven’t heard
my own voice all day
______Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United
August 30th, 2020 12:41 am
This is absolutely lovely! I love the way it unrolls, detail by detail, and I love each of those details as well as the whole impression. Everything about this is beautifully judged. Wonderful title, too.
August 30th, 2020 2:52 am
Silence is golden when there is so much to see and hear.
August 30th, 2020 3:47 am
The whole poem is indeed an exhaling of summer, Colleen, so calming and sensual., especially the sounds, the hummingbird whirring, the bird calls, crickets’ muted cheers, and so on. Couplets are the perfect choice for an exhale poem. I like the hint at pandemic solitude in the final lines.
August 30th, 2020 9:13 am
Kind of nice to have our voices drowned out sometimes by the sounds of nature, isn’t it?
August 30th, 2020 10:03 am
A beautiful day spent among the lines. This is an inspiring write–now I’m going to aspire to make a day into a poem when it gets a bit cooler. 🙂
August 30th, 2020 11:12 am
What a wonderful celebration of autumn. Being the daughter of a farmer, I have to take exception to one thing, however. The rooster crows, the hen cackles!
August 30th, 2020 1:10 pm
I’m all smiles right now. I love that I got completely lost in the images. And that I was reminded of how strong the call of the land and its creatures can be.
August 30th, 2020 11:00 pm
This is filled with very nice and creative imagery. I especially enjoyed the second stanza.
August 31st, 2020 9:18 am
for us folks in the city, these are the lovely images we dream of. especially sunflowers trying to touch the blue sky.
September 4th, 2020 5:14 am
Beautiful.. makes one want to be in that hammock swing watching the day unfold…