Look at this beautiful poem — August Triptych — by Louise Ireland.
We used it as this month’s jumping-off point, writing poems “In the Style Of…” but from the other side of summer. I like this kind of challenge — where we’re given a container of sorts and have to work within it. To fill it, I guess! In Texas, June feels like full-on summer rather than the beginning, so that’s what I went with.
June triptych
Liz Garton Scanlon
I.
Freedom is the sun hanging
like laundry on the line,
hot and still – not a breath
of breeze to bother it –
and the day unfolds
as it will.
II.
Look! There are groundhogs
everywhere, out of control
and way too much
to manage.
Holes as tripping hazards
and garden peppers all but gone.
Chaos reigns,
and we hurry
to get ahead of it.
III.
The century plant blooms just once,
this bright spike emerging
from the sharpest,
most protected center,
showing us how
to go out with a beautiful bang
when the time comes.
See the other triptychs here:
Tanita
Mary Lee
Tricia
Sara
Laura
(And our own Tricia is hosting Poetry Friday!)
As for next month, we’re writing pantoums, using Pádraig Ó Tuama’s very specific and sensory prompts (scroll down to find them…) Will you write along with us? I hope so!
Ooof. This is perfection:
showing us how/to go out with a beautiful bang/when the time comes.
I’m sorry you are already in full-on summer. I have been savoring the last dregs of spring.
thank you, pal!
I said it on Substack and I’ll say it again here: Oh, yeah. You nailed the sun, the heat, the garden chaos (chipmunks in my case), and that ending. That ending.
sometimes endings just arrive… with a whimper or a beautiful bang!
Ohhh, those century plants. They really do have it down. Just – GO BIG and then go home. May that be an ending we can all embrace.
We don’t have groundhogs in this little area we moved to – but there’s two kinds of squirrels and it’s MADNESS. Fortunately, they’re way too cute to be mad at for too long. ::sigh::
the groundhogs in this poem are actually haunting my parents in Wisconsin, but I figured there was room for them here 🙂
This is beautiful, Liz. I can feel that full-on summer heat in the first section (which is brilliant) and I love the laundry images. I love the final lines as well. May we all go out with a beautiful bang.
Amen!
Wow, that century plant has so much to offer us about life and how to live it—fill it with gusto, as your gorgeous poem does, thanks Liz!
thanks, Michelle — the century plants are really otherworldly!