What to say about June?, poem by D. A. Pratt

WHAT TO SAY ABOUT JUNE?
by D.A. Pratt

June has the anniversary of D-Day
and the anniversary of the death
of the author of Tropic of Cancer . . . 
The Six-Day War in 1967 was in June
but July and August have the anniversaries
of Trinity and what followed in 1945 . . . but
I digress – we’re talking about June . . .
June probably has a lot of anniversaries,
many likely associated with weddings,
many of which likely led to divorces,
most of which probably weren’t in June …
Other famous people must have died
in June or were born in June . . . I was
born in June but I’m not famous . . .
June has the solstice – the one that begins
the season of summer according to the way
the planet likes to do things . . . summer
in the north, actually, but that’s the one
that counts for North Americans . . . oddly,
the days start getting shorter . . . we won’t
notice right away since we’re too busy
starting summer . . . winter just ended, didn’t it?
June creates high hopes about summer
but also fears of romances not surviving
until the autumn . . .  “See you in September”
has too much meaning for far too many –
my first girlfriend slipped away from me
during the summer . . . that must have
started in June, when I think about it . . .
One hundred years ago, June may have been
the last month of innocence . . . something
must have been “brewing” in July 1914
(DHL and Frieda were married in that July) –
who knew what was about to unfold, what
kind of darkness was about to descend?
But it’s June one hundred years later:
the sun is shining, even if it’s different now, and
there’s an oriole visiting our oriole-feeder
at our cabin for the first time ever . . .
I’ll soon start a new notebook since
I begin my notebooks at the start
of each new season . . . and someone’s
summer holidays will soon be beginning …
June is a month for illusions to continue . . . and
it seems we all have far too many of them . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: D.A. (David) Pratt lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. This “June” poem combines reflections about the month in general along with some personal notes.

The Month of June, poem by Pablo Neruda

THE MONTH OF JUNE
by Pablo Neruda

Green was the silence, 
wet was the light
the month of June
trembled like a butterfly. 

SOURCE: 100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda

IMAGE: “Little Butterfly” by Angela Doelling. Prints available at fineartamerica.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was the pen name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftali Ricardo ReyesBasoalto. He chose his pseudonym after Czech poet Jan Neruda. In 1971, Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Neruda often wrote in green ink because it was his personal symbol of desire and hope. Gabriel García Márquez called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.”

More than Enough, poem by Marge Piercy

MORE THAN ENOUGH
by Marge Piercy

The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
All over the sand road where we walk
multiflora rose climbs trees cascading
white or pink blossoms, simple, intense
the scene drifting like colored mist.

The arrowhead is spreading its creamy
clumps of flower and the blackberries
are blooming in the thickets. Season of
joy for the bee. The green will never
again be so green, so purely and lushly

new, grass lifting its wheaty seedheads
into the wind. Rich fresh wine
of June, we stagger into you smeared
with pollen, overcome as the turtle
laying her eggs in roadside sand.

SOURCE: “More than Enough” appears in Marge Piercy‘s 176-page collection Colors Passing Through Us (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), available at Amazon.com.

IMAGE: “June Lily” by Paul Trunk. Prints available at fineartamerica.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Poet, novelist, and essayist Marge Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1936. She won a scholarship to the University of Michigan and later earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University. She has published fifteen books of poetry, including Colors Passing Through Us (2003), The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme (1999), Early Grrrl: The Early Poems of Marge Piercy (1999), What Are Big Girls Made Of? (1997), Mars and Her Children (1992), Available Light (1988), Circles on the Water: Selected Poems of Marge Piercy (1982), and The Moon Is Always Female (1980). She is also the author of a collection of essays on poetry, Parti-Colored Blocks for a Quilt (1982). Piercy lives with her husband, writer Ira Wood, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

June, poem by Linda Pastan

JUNE
by Linda Pastan

The June bug
on the screen door
whirs like a small,
ugly machine,

and a chorus of frogs
and crickets drones like Musak
at all the windows.
What we don’t quite see

comforts us.
Blink of lightning, grumble
of thunder—just the heat
clearing its throat.

SOURCE: “The Months” by Linda Pastan appears in its entirety at poetryfoundation.org. Originally published in Poetry (October 1999).

PAINTING: “Junebug” by Melanie Fain (2009). Prints available at natureartists.com. Visit the artist at melaniefain.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Linda Pastan has published at least 12 books of poetry and a number of essays. Her awards include the Dylan Thomas Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (Poetry Society of America), the Bess Hokin Prize (Poetry Magazine), the 1986 Maurice English Poetry Award (for A Fraction of Darkness), the Charity Randall Citation of the International Poetry Forum, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Two of her collections of poems were nominated for the National Book Award and one for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. From 1991–1995 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland.

Moon Haiku by Matsunaga Teitoku

MOON HAIKU
by Matsunaga Teitoku (1571-1654)

Many solemn nights
Blond moon, we stand and marvel…
Sleeping our noons away. 

PHOTO: The moon rises behind the helicopter from the original Batman television show, which people can ride at the New Jersey State Fair, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in East Rutherford, N.J.  (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

The Moon, poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

THE MOON
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.

But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.

PHOTO: A “supermoon“– closer to the Earth than normal and appearing 14% larger — rises behind roadside plants growing in Prattville, Ala., Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Moon Haiku by Matsunaga Teitoku

MOON HAIKU
by Matsunaga Teitoku (1571-1654)

Many solemn nights
Blond moon, we stand and marvel…
Sleeping our noons away. 

PHOTO: The moon rises behind the helicopter from the original Batman television show, which people can ride at the New Jersey State Fair, Saturday, June 22, 2013, in East Rutherford, N.J.  (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

The Moon, poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

THE MOON
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.

But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.

PHOTO: A “supermoon“– closer to the Earth than normal and appearing 14% larger — rises behind roadside plants growing in Prattville, Ala., Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

June Had Arrived, quote by J.K. Rowling

“The castle grounds were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparkling lake, the satin-green lawns rippled occasionally in a gentle breeze: June had arrived.” J.K. ROWLING, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

PHOTO: “Scotney Castle Landscape Gardents, Kent, UK” by ukgardenphotos, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Month of June, poem by Pablo Neruda

Green was the silence, wet was the light

the month of June trembled like a butterfly.

from 100 Love Sonnets by PABLO NERUDA

Photo: Nimeariel, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED