The summer solstice, our signal to celebrate the official calendar start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere, happens on June 21. The term “solstice” comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). At the solstice, the angle between the sun’s rays and the plane of the earth’s equator appears to stand still. We invite you to sit still for a minute or two with this summer solstice poem by Colin Goedecke, reflect on summers past and dream of the summer that awaits.

“Bring Yourself to This Day

                                     for the Summer Solstice”

This Solstice Day,
re-generous day.
Of new Summering,
good Naturing.
The sun so greatly
lengthening.
The trees
so freely dancing,
in ever deeper,
ever greener ecstasies.
The clouds caressing
the open skies,
and dotting the eyes
of sailors
and mountaineers,
painters and
sonneteers.
The waters of lakes
and rivers, firths
and fjords, bays
and sounds, clear
and mirroring.
Bring yourself,
your whole nature,
bodifully,
spiritly ~
as bountifully,
to this day
of balance and
beauty,
dalliance
and euphony
between
the boundless
heavens and the
re-turning earth;
with a lightening
heart and long,
lengthening breath.

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Pleinair poet Colin Goedecke, pleinairpoetry.com and thepoetorialist.com has other solstice and equinox poems  to explore. Here’s  a link to his Floating Poetry Broadcast playlist, a weekly series currently on YouTube that might interest you, too.