Start 10

10 of 12 in the ’12 months VI’ series

I have summer and sunshine here in my grasp
and I'm not letting go, so don't even ask
They're mine and neither is going away
so no fretting there as I start this display

For I am fair June and the summer is mine
so most of my days will be lovely and fine
And you will be warm and blissfully free
as you celebrate this, the summer with me

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

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Last Day #5

5 of 12 in the ‘Last Day 23’ series

And the last day of May
comes as June takes the stage
with a bow as summer returns
So good at long last to get a warm blast
of the sunshine as strongly it burns

So as May fades to silent
with its last curtain call
we applaud as it gave of its best
and brought us the sun for long days of fun
in exuberance of summer's zest

©Jemverse

Photo – detail from Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ – Jempics

Summer’s youth

I'd have to say (If I didn't know better)
if only because the ground's less wetter
and we've not been shivering quite so much
although it is May and springtime as such
has only by the colour shown
and not by warmth we might have known
brought to our now long-suffered frame
the softened whisper known by name.
But these still morning shadows long
bathed there in sunshine with a song
don't need the words to speak the truth
and bring to life the summer's youth.

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Start 9 (aka ‘Calan Mai’)

9 of 12 in the ’12 months IV series’

Mayday and to jingling bells
around tall poles and dancers tells
and cries of joy and yodelling yells
first day of summer comes

Midway twixt the equinox
and summer solstice twirl the frocks
with brightly coloured stripy socks
first day of summer comes

So dance we will as dance we must
with 'Calan Mai's' tradition thrust
as to these open arms in trust
first day of summer comes

©Jemverse

Photo – Bezza Croucher

[‘Calan Mai’ is a Mayday celebration in Wales which celebrates the midway point between the Spring equinox and Summer solstice and traditionally marks the first day of summer]

(going back to) Lancing Beach

6 of 12 in the ‘My Very Best’ series

Lightest of breeze, Sea in the air
Sounds of children playing down there
Green on the shingle, Cabbage White
Occasional bird in lazy flight
Blue of the sky, blue of the sea
White wispy clouds, soft buzzing bee
Shimmering distantly Worthing pier
Sometimes hazy, sometimes clear
Moored on horizon, fishing boats
Whilst nearer in shore swimmers float
Out to the east is Brighton’s sprawl
High in the air a seagull’s call
Perfect now the weather’s fine
Lancing Beach in summertime

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

[Lancing Beach has been posted and re-written several times over the years but first appeared on Jemverse in June 2014]

Thinking on summer when cold revisited

Concluding the ‘Brittle 23’ series (10 of 10)

When I’m cold in the winter
I will think of the days
when the warmth of the summer
smothers every malaise
Back to the times
when unencumbered and free
I can wander in sunshine
and quite simply be me

©Jemverse

Series pic – Jempics

[Thinking of summer when cold was first posted in November 2015, reposted in January 2021 and January last year and again today (with an extract – the second verse)]

Of an evening (revisited)

8 of 12 in ‘The of…’ series from Jemverse 2022

Of an evening spent down by the sea
with waves lapping there quietly
I’ll let the silence encapsulate me
At the end of a wonderful day

Of an evening with the sky painted pink
as my toes in the sand slowly sink
I have time to ponder and think
At the end of a wonderful day

Of an evening with sun on the wane
with the sky to the west all aflame
The sea brings its calming again
At the end of a wonderful day

Of an evening slowly coming to end
in this place I can always depend
It is good to spend time with my friend
At the end of a wonderful day

©Jemverse

series pic – Jempics

[Of an evening was first posted in August 2015]

Over the years I have titled several poems with the preposition ‘of’ – so this last Jemverse mini-series of 2022 pulls some of those back together again

Ubi sunt for summer

Where are the sunshine days
now winter's cold hand clasps?
Still there though faded now and weak
as summer never lasts

Yet there in the circle promise lies
and breath bated with a smile
knows with reassurance it
will come back in a while

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

[An ‘ubi sunt’ poem poses a rhetorical question derived from the Latin “uni sunt qui ante nos fuerunt” (Where are those that went before us?). Indicating nostalgia,  an ‘ubi sunt’ poem is about the transient nature of things].

Sunshine true

Some say it debilitates
that may be true
yet never from sunshine
you'll see me eschew
for as had been said here
many times in the past
I was born of the summer
and that fact will last
So to sunshine and warmth
I will gravitate and
promulgate all its virtues
so you'll understand

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

When it’s hot I am (reprise)

6 of 10 in ‘The lavender series’ from Jemverse

I am part of the sunshine
It’s warmth lifts my soul
It revitalises and
with it I’m whole

I am part of the summer
Long days in the sun
with lavender lingering
when they are done

I am part of the essence
that winter is not
As I’m only myself
when it’s lovely and hot

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

‘When it’s hot, I am‘ was first posted to Jemverse in March 2016