This poem by the Arboretum’s founder suspends a moment in the “high season” of summer. It concludes with a moving image of Nature’s blessing. The poem appeared in the collection, “A Barnyard Year.”
Midsummer Pause
There is a moment in midsummer when the earth
Pauses between flower and fruit; the hay is cut,
The oats ripen, on pasture knolls pearly everlasting
Lifts its small fountains of silver and gold.
The skies are blue, and hills rest all day
Like men at noon under a shady tree.
The leaves have turned dark green, they hoard
Their strength, no strong wind harms them.
Boys swim under the big elm by the crick.
Locusts drone in the trees; the swallows
Gather on wires, and starlings in flocks
Wheel over the meadows like curving hands.