
“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.”
— Plutarch
It seems a little obvious to include a poem about the end of summer, but it is the end of summer and we’ve officially welcomed fall. It’s even more obvious to choose a poem by Stanley Kunitz, but he is one of the great poets whose words, language, and expression I truly love. He paints such a clear picture in a way I would never describe it, and in that “painting” he captures the feeling of the end of summer.
End of Summer
By Stanley Kunitz
An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.
I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones,
Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me
The song of my marrow-bones.
Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was over.
Already the iron door of the north
Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows.
(Painting by Sara Katz found here.)