NIGHT OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE
by Carolyn Miller
We celebrated the solstice by a waterfall
the water overflowing like our lives rushing
and rushing past us so much water
in the narrow channel of the slanting Mousse
it fell onto the rocks and blew up in spray
and the sound of it almost drowned out our talking
as we laughed together and drank Champagne
the bubbles rising in our glasses like spray
from the rocks while everywhere leaves
were conspiring to live their lives and the stones
looked on with their histories locked inside them
and we talked on as water spilled and fell and the light
stayed on after we had left our emptied glasses
and the sound of the waterfall kept on rising
in the narrow gorge where tiny wild orchids
bloomed in the long long light and the river
begonias waited for their turn to open
in the fullness of that summer
“Night of the Summer Solstice” and other poetry by Carolyn Miller will appear in the Silver Birch Press SUMMER ANTHOLOGY — a collection of poetry and prose from over 50 authors around the world — available June 1, 2013.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carolyn Miller is a poet and painter living in San Francisco. Light, Moving, her most recent book of poetry, was published by Sixteen Rivers Press in 2009, and her first full-length collection, After Cocteau, was published by the same press in 2002. Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, and The Gettysburg Review, among other journals, and her awards include the James Boatwright III Prize for Poetry from Shenandoah, and the Rainmaker Award from Zone 3.
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