Summer Magic

One more from the Mac at Ten section of Summer Magic. Hope you can feel all the exuberance of a young boy spending the afternoon at a mountain swimming hole.

The Rope Swing

Sailing up, up into
Blue summer sky,
Hot rope rough against his hands,
He shouts with joy, and lets go.
For a crystal moment,
He hangs suspended,
Frozen in time
Like a fly in amber.
All awkward angles–
Shoulder blades and
Elbows, and
Knobby knees,
Painted against the sky,
Heart filled with fierce joy.

Dropping, down, down
Into clear green water
Cold on his skin,
He sinks to the silty bottom
And sits suspended
In an alien world,
Watching the silvered flashes
Of tiny fish darting to and fro,
Startled by his sudden appearance.
I am a fish, too, he thinks,
And holds his breath
As long as he can.

Finally, he rockets up
Through a stream of
Tickling bubbles,
Breaking the
Surface of the water
With a loud whoop of
Childish exuberance.
All thoughts of becoming a fish
Forgotten as he
Scrambles out,
Shakes the water from his hair,
And, grinning, hitches up his
Baggy shorts.

He’s ready
To do it all again.
Flying through the summer air,
Dropping into the cold water
To commune with fishes
Silvered in refracted light.
Then leaping to the surface,
A boy of ten once more,
Laughing through an endless summer
Made perfect by a cool green pond,
And an old rope swing.

– Marcia Meara –

Summer Magic: Poems of Life & Love

27 May 2014

15 Comments

Thank You, Anna Celeste Burke!

This is why I love writers so much! They support and sustain each other, learn from each other, offer advice to each other, and sometimes, when you are very lucky, write reviews that sound like this one, which Celeste posted on amazon for my little chapbook, Summer Magic: Poems of Life and Love. How wonderful to read this and imagine my words inspiring such a response. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Celeste. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your posting this. I’m ridiculously happy, and I’m going to share your the entire review so my followers can see why:

“Summer is magic! If you want another way to experience a bit of that magic I invite you to read Marcia Meara’s recently released book of poetry, Summer Magic: Poems of Life and Love. It’s a perfect read for a languid summer’s day or a long weekend like this one. Taking a breather from grilling and eating, reading the book is like dangling your toes in a cool, rippling brook. It’s not just her poems that reflect the childhood joy of plunging into cool green waters from a “Rope Swing,” or the ‘drip-drip’ of “Showers” on a rainy day that will give you that creekside, summer experience. “Summer Magic” the first poem, and the one that gives the book its title, is awash in words that conjure summer. My favorite lines from the poem:

There! A thin curve of molten red!
A far away sliver of fiery light
Breaks the horizon.

Part One of the book, “Mac at 10,” contains poems celebrating summer from the vantage point of MacKenzie Cole, lead character in Marcia Meara’s wonderful book, Wake-Robin Ridge. As you can imagine, from the glimpse of her poetry provided here, setting matters. In both Wake-Robin Ridge and her new book, Swamp Ghosts, she brings her poetic bent to bear on her story telling.

My favorite of the poems in this part of the book is “Star-Gazing.” Even though I’m still a little annoyed that my late-night effort to catch a meteor-shower this week was such a bust! The “Giraffes” meteor shower was slated to rival Perseid, the meteor shower featured in Marcia’s poem that occurs each August. Perseid has no rival, trust me. Still, star-gazing was a favorite teenage pastime and this poem evoked fond memories of times in my life when I was privileged to witness sky-borne wonders.

Part two of Summer Magic, “Poems of Life and Love,” presents more adult-themed visions of summer. Especially poignant are images of summer waning, as we are dragged, sometimes kicking and screaming into fall, and other seasons of our lives. I love the meter of the first poem in part two, “On the River,” the moody tone of “The Last Rose,” and the wanton disregard for structure in “Attitude Really is Everything.” So true, btw! Here’s to Summer Magic, in Marcia Meara’s book, or wherever we may find it.”

You can find Anna Celeste Burke’s books on amazon:

A Dead Husband

A Dead Sister