Summer is my very favorite time of year.
I love the food. I love the clothes. I love the attitude of summer.
And believe me when I tell you that I even love the hot temperatures of summer.
I feel more alive in the summer and love the healing spirit of being outdoors on the longer days.
Summer’s amazing long days were brought to my mind yesterday morning as I listened to NPR.
Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac came on and that made me feel better right away. He is the American author, storyteller and creator/host of the hugely popular radio program, A Prairie Home Companion. I love Keillor’s voice. It’s calm and soothing and perfect for radio.
Keillor’s short jewel of a program features literary and historical notes and a daily poem. In Washington, DC, it airs before seven in the morning so sometimes I miss it and sometimes I don’t. But I am always happy when I catch it.
Luck was with me yesterday for I turned on the radio just in time to hear his daily wisdom. As I was getting ready to go to work, Keillor began to read his daily poem. I don’t know if he personally picks the poems or someone on his staff has that great job but the poems are perfect for the morning.
This dreamy summer poem totally drew me in and I would like to share it with you so that its lyrical warmth might stay with you throughout the day as it did for me:
The Summer You Read Proust
By Philip Terman
Remember the summer you read Proust?
In the hammock tied to the apple trees
your daughters climbed, their shadows
merging with the shadows of the leaves
spilling onto those long arduous sentences,
all afternoon and into the evening — robins,
jays, the distant dog, the occasional swaying,
the way the hours rocked back and forth,
that gigantic book holding you in its woven nest —
you couldn’t get enough pages, you wished
that with every turning a thousand were added,
the words falling you into sleep, the sleep
waking you into words, the summer you read
Proust, which lasted the rest of your life.
“The Summer You Read Proust” by Philip Terman from Our Portion. Autumn House Press, 2015.
Philip Terman
Hi Mary–
Thanks so much for including my poem on your blog! I was honored that Garrison Keillor read it, and I’m honored that you would share it.
Best wishes,
Philip Terman
Mary Kate Cranston
Hi Philip! What a wonderful surprise to hear from you!! I absolutely love your poem and printed it out to give to some of my friends and they loved it too! You captured the exact feeling of relaxing in a summer hammock on a warm summer day. You are a beautiful writer!! Thank you so much for reading Cry Laugh Heal. Best wishes to you also.