• VIDEO BY ALICE
• SUMMARY OF THE POEM
  • “Song for a Summer Day,” a Poem by Alice B. Clagett, Soundtrack and Words
  • Postlude: Music of Chris Zabriskie and Scenes from Pastorius Reservoir

Dear Ones,

I went for a drive from Los Angeles to Grass Valley in the spring of 2001, and on the way home, this poem was born. The title of the poem is “Song for a Summer Day.” It is about true love … not the kind we read about in novels, but the love from which we sprang, and to which each of us longs to return.

Here is the spoken poem. There is a Summary after the video …

VIDEO BY ALICE

SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO

Hello, Dear Ones, It’s Alice.

This is the last in my current series of poems that I wrote myself a while back. This one is called “Song for a Summer Day.” I wrote it on the drive from Los Angeles to Grass Valley, in California. It was a beautiful drive.

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“Song for a Summer Day”
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
Soundtrack and Words
May 2001

 

These sun-drenched California hills
. . . . knead me like dough,
. . . . bake me in the noonday sun,
. . . . and eat me for lunch.

Not a bad way to go …

I’d like to live on a road
. . . . with a sign at the entrance:
. . . . NO THROUGH STREET.

Let it have rolling hills
. . . . live oaks marking a fence line
. . . . horses grazing the wild oats
. . . . . . . . riding the backs of the meadows
. . . . . . . . tawnily
. . . . . . . . like a lion’s sleek fur

Let it have bird call
. . . . and response
. . . . . . . . cricket chirp
. . . . and a cricket answering
. . . . . . . . heart song
. . . . as the wind loves to touch
. . . . the leaves of the oak tree
. . . . . . . . love’s song
. . . . like the brook that whispers to the passing shore:
. . . . “Drink, drink! Freely I give to thee.”

Love does not forget the other,
. . . . the different one, loved for its difference
. . . . the dry one, loved for a chance to bring it water
. . . . the green one, loved for its greenness
. . . . the formless one, loved for its touch alone
. . . . and all those who long for another,
. . . . . . . . loved for their longing

Love is, and what is not
. . . . are this tree,
. . . . this golden field,
. . . . the rolling warble of a summer day
. . . . . . . . in California

The length and breadth and depth of life
. . . . are not here,
. . . . but hidden away, like a summer day
. . . . . . . . on a forgotten country road
. . . . nourished by a stream that never runs dry,
. . . . . . . . not even in summer.

Postlude: Music of Chris Zabriskie and Scenes from Pastorius Reservoir

[The Postlude features the soothing instrumental music  “Prelude No. 1” from the album “Preludes” by Chris Zabriskie, CC BY 4.0, and scenes from Pastorius Reservoir State Wildlife Area, Colorado

Image: “Rolling Hills and California Oaks,” effected, by Alice B. Clagett, 2001, CC BY-SA 4.0 International, from “Awakening with Planet Earth,” https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com …

. . . . .

In love, light and joy,
Alice B. Clagett
I Am of the Stars

Written in May 2001; I indicated 1 May 2001 as the date of writing; filmed on 4 October 2014; published on 11 October 2014; republished on 20 December 2018 and 16 July 2020; revised on 10 March 2023
Location: Pastorius Reservoir State Wildlife Area, La Plata County, Colorado

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Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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