Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

The waning of summer is a theme which has inspired many poets.

Helios, Greek god-charioteer of the Sun, a beautiful youth who crosses the sky each day in his golden chariot drawn by four “fire-darting steeds,” must vanish in Oceanus each night, to rise anew each dawn. In the days of summer, his journey is long, but the time of his crossing grows shorter with the passing of the season, and shorter still as autumn days slip into winter. So even if he burns us now, we must still celebrate his glorious rays before the long nights come upon us once more.

Those dwelling below the Earth’s Equator are of course poised to celebrate the renewal of the Charioteer’s full strength in the skies of the South.

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Jennifer Grotz perfectly captures a late summer afternoon in the city.

Late Summer

Before the moths have even appeared
to orbit around them, the streetlamps come on,
a long row of them glowing uselessly

along the ring of garden that circles the city center,
where your steps count down the dulling of daylight.
At your feet, a bee crawls in small circles like a toy unwinding.

Summer specializes in time, slows it down almost to dream.
And the noisy day goes so quiet you can hear
the bedraggled man who visits each trash receptacle

mutter in disbelief: Everything in the world is being thrown away!
Summer lingers, but it’s about ending. It’s about how things
redden and ripen and burst and come down. It’s when

city workers cut down trees, demolishing
one limb at a time, spilling the crumbs
of twigs and leaves all over the tablecloth of street.

Sunglasses! the man softly exclaims
while beside him blooms a large gray rose of pigeons
huddled around a dropped piece of bread.

“Late Summer” from The Needle, © 2011 by Jennifer Grotz – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Jennifer Grotz (1971 – ), American poet and translator, grew up in small-town Texas, but has lived in France and Poland. She teaches English and creative writing at the University of Rochester. In 2017 she was named as the seventh director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

POETRY COLLECTIONS

• • Window Left Open (Graywolf Press, 2016)
  • The Needle, poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011)
  • Cusp, poems (Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books, 2003)
  • Not Body, limited-edition letterpress poetry chapbook (Urban Editions, 2001)

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