The Sun and Us

 

Summer Solstice '26

we humans believe ourselves to be creatures of Light,

our moods can darken,

we can be enlightened,

I consider the Summer Solstice today,

for months the rising and setting Sun

has methodically marched north,

sunrise earlier and earlier,

sunset, later and later,

deciduous plants, both perennial and annual,

have "made hay" while the sun has aggressively powered

the photosynthesis in their leaves,

we stand today at the peak of what the Sun

gives to the northern hemisphere,

tomorrow we will start a slow long decline in yours of daylight,

the heat won't notice for awhile

because there's a lag time

before cosmic changes manifest

as to what we can feel with our skink,

we still have months of the bounty of produce,

as cornk tomato, all manner of vegetables and fruit,

set their selves and command their harvest,

the sweat on my brow matches the saliva in my mouth

where my hunger anticipates

wht the growing season can produce,

the Sun by itself, without timely rains,

will help made the austere beauty of desert,

and that certainly has its glory,

around me, in the piedmont,

the trees have rooted deep enough

to mostly use the abundant ground water,

stored below over the many millennia,

to audaciously continue to throw their canopies into the sky,

in the garden, well water allows me

to keep the tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumber growing,

though the young okra just suffered predation

from a hungry rabbit, who savors the succulence

of watered growth in these dry times,

now is when our hearts hope for us

to return to the mountains, to the Smokies,

where we can well celebrate the turning of the year,

and the glory that the Earth can throw back at the heavens

in appreciation of the cosmic,

manifesting in the abundance 

of growth, of beauty,

maybe of enlightenment.

by Henry H. Walker

June 20, ‘26