Summer Solstice

Photo: beebalm (Monarda citriodora), rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera), black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and very blurry in the back blanketflower (Gaillardia pulchella). Taken from my favorite front window 6/19/23.

Longest days

Hottest rays

Sun standing still

While we try to chill

Beebalm blooming

Insects zooming

While I wait for the heat

To start to retreat

Longing for the sight

Of monarchs in flight

Next, leaves are ablaze

Then cozy, cool days.

- Lana Dion

6/16/22

Behind the poem

"Solstice" was the third creativity prompt of a four-part online group project last June. I wasn't feeling very inspired by it because summer is bittersweet for me; while it's really pretty outside and my garden is lovely and there are lots of critters about, my body can't tolerate the heat. So, I had to have a little of that honesty in my poem about the solstice, and while we're at the summer one, I kind of look forward to the winter one—even though each season has aspects to enjoy. =) Here in North Texas the monarch butterflies usually come through on their migration to Mexico in about October, usually right before or at the beginning of fall, so they kind of mark the changing of seasons. I finished the first and last lines with "days," as the solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year and through the poem I travel from one to the other. This year, the summer solstice for the Northern Hemisphere falls on June 21, 2023.