Summer Season Poetry

Had a memorable conversation with a child once who informed me there were four seasons. Please tell their names I asked.

'Okay' she said. 'Summer, Awesome, Winter, Spring.'

She was closer to the truth than she realised, for the seasons are quite awesome, each in their own way, have fascinated poets, forever.

December marks the beginning of Summer in Australia and these poems hopefully capture a sense of the warm season. Summer means many things in Australia. For many, summer present means danger, drought and bushfires. I have at time been drawn to writing about this dark side of summer for it has been part of my lived experience.

While remaining fully aware of these potential dangers, summer also brings positives. For many it means holidays, relaxed living and family time.

It is forever a season capable of mixed blessings, possessingthe same complexity as the human condition. Poets are continually drawn to summer musings and I am one such poet...

Inyinnyi-The Smell Of The Earth After Summer Rain

Upon the coming of gentle rain

Trailing in behind a warm summer spell

The refreshed ground around me

Releases the oils of the earth.

They rise to inform me

Of a transformed state of being

And all my thought of worldly conflict

For a brief moment fades

And inyinnyi’s unique scent

Holds sway

And I am in awe.

Alanj Wright

Inyinnyi is an indigenous word for the smell of the earth following rain.

Summer Solitude

It's easier to be alone

in summer.

In winter

with everyone confined indoors

most days.

Life becomes crowded.

In summer.

the garden generously offers up

shady corners,

quiet nooks,

where one can be detached from the world,

lazing in the shadows.

People leave you at peace in summer.

They leave you alone

settled for a time,

in your shaded corner,

deep in summery contemplation

and perfect stillness.

Winter brings on

huddling.

Summer is for solitude.

Alan j Wright

Paul Kelly sings 'Petrichor' at the Sydney Opera House.

It is once more Poetry Friday and our host this week is Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise. Linda is having fun taking two or more poems and mash them together in interesting combinations. This form of poetry is called cento. Check it out...

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,' Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant. A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...

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