Warmth fades from the sponge-gray sky.
The leaf-stored light now blazes bright
Across the boreal uplands.
Birch and aspen and willow are fitting trees for the north country.
Dark so long, light so briefly intense.
From their spring unfurling
Their leaves gather up the summer sun.
And when the twenty-four hour light is lost
And the fireweed go to fuzz,
The birch, aspen and willow glow
As Edison’s incandescent never did
Against a sponge-gray sky
Through the rain and mist,
Dappling the path with light,
Now sunlight in suspended animation,
Now tangible puddles of gold,
Now the reflection of summer’s brightest days.
The warmth has departed but the light lingers.

By Cynthia Curtis
September 1976 (revisited September 2021)

Enjoy more poetry by CRR’s Mackenzie Dysinger with these selections:

The Return of the Moon

Fireweed

Honest Spruce