October 4, 2024

The day is yet one more yellow leaf and without turning I kiss the light by an old well on the last of the month gathering wild rose hips in the sun.

—W.S. Merwin


September 27, 2024

I stand as the black water Of each wave’s backwash Hugs my hip boots Making little stars of light As the water “fires” around my legs.

—Conrad Neuman


September 20, 2024

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.

—Edwin Way Teale


September 13, 2024

As imperceptibly as grief The summer lapsed away, — Too imperceptible, at last, To seem like perfidy.

—Emily Dickinson


September 6, 2024

Blue poured into summer blue, A hawk broke from his cloudless tower, The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew That part of my life was over.

—Stanley Kunitz


August 30, 2024

Among the first we learn is good-bye, Your tiny wrist between Dad’s forefinger And thumb forced to wave bye-bye to Mom, Whose hand sails brightly behind a windshield.

—Julia Spicher Kasdorf


August 23, 2024

The holidays were fruitful, but must end; One August evening had a cooler breath; Into each mind intruding duties crept; Under the cinders burned the fires of home.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson


August 16, 2024

The year’s best blueberry scone Gorgeous needlework being shown Iron skillets being thrown We recall what has always made the Vineyard unique.

—Jerry Muskin


August 9, 2024

Near the shore’s arm of dune that holds the pond, A kayak glides, Someone seeking peace And looking up to find it in the sky.

—Margaret Howe Freydberg


August 2, 2024

August rushes by like desert rainfall, A flood of frenzied upheaval, Expected, But still catching me unprepared. Like a matchflame Bursting on the scene.

—Elizabeth Maua Taylor


July 26, 2024

And now the crickets plug in their appliances in unison, and then the fireflies flash dots and dashes in the grass, like punctuation.

—Tony Hoagland


July 19, 2024

High in the evening elm the robin tries his notes . . . To sleep, to sleep, while star by star the sky opens, and far and high eternity rides by.

—Charles Malam


July 12, 2024

Remember you are all people and all people are you. Remember you are this universe and this universe is you. Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.

—Joy Harjo


July 5, 2024

Ballerinas go to Swan Neck Point; Bankers to Dividend Beach. All men go to the various Heads. But who goes to Quansoo?

—A.M. Krich


June 28, 2024

That beautiful season the Summer! Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; And the landscape Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


June 21, 2024

Rich fresh wine of June, We stagger into you smeared with pollen, Overcome as the turtle Laying her eggs in roadside sand.

—Marge Piercy


June 14, 2024

First you figure out what each one means by itself, the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop Full of moonlight. Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.

—Mary Oliver


June 7, 2024

How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams With its illusions, aspirations, dreams! Book of Beginnings, Story without End, Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


May 31, 2024

Straight I walked to the trellis vine. Wisteria touched a lifted nostril: Feelings of beauty diffused, to entwine My spirit with June’s own aura.

—Ann McGough


May 24, 2024

Out of the blood of a conflict fraternal, Out of the dust and the dimness of death, Burst into blossoms of glory eternal Flowers that sweeten the world with their breath.

—Paul Laurence Dunbar


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