Walk Into September: Poetry From Polly
Walk Into September: Poetry From Polly
By Polly Brody
Take your children on a nature walk. Discover with them the treasures that await you at summerâs end.
Examine the milkweed still in its green pod, found along any weedy road margin. Let your youngster open one and feel the sticky, creamy sap ooze out on his fingers. Enjoy together the wonderful symmetry of its seeds: each flat, brown promise of next yearâs plant layered just above and behind the one before it. All their silvery tails are closed in a packed smooth cone. Pry a handful from the pod and let the air dry their floss. Now delight in blowing them aloft. Each tiny burst of gossamer will snare its share of sunlight as it drifts away.
Creep quietly to the edge of a secluded pond. Perhaps you will see a small Green Heron posed motionless on its bank, head cocked, ready to launch a fishing spear beak at minnows. Or notice a wake of bubbles give away the mink gliding underwater to the farther shore. Turtles will be sunning on rocks, their gray-plated backs soaking up rays.
Listen to the buzzing insect gossip: cicadas building metallic whines to insistent crescendos. Crickets scrape their sounding combs in the grass. But dragonflies hover silently, shimmering in the air. Wood and pasture are no longer filled with birdsong. Autumn sends many species southward. But Mourning Doves, foraging in a dry, pastel field, will beat up with fluting wings at your approach.
Savor the odors of late summer: dusty scent of leaves and the acrid, somehow old, aroma of September meadows. In a run-down orchard, the cidery aura of apples simmers.
The earth gives off mellow warmth. Not yet the hectic sharpness of October, Septemberâs country is steeped in sweet lethargy.
(Former Newtown resident Polly Brody was the guest poet for Wednesday Night Poetry Series in August. We are pleased to offer this âseasonal essayâ by Mrs Brody, who used to share similar writings with The Newtown Bee when she was living in town.
Mrs Brody will be the guest speaker for The Garden Club of Newtown on Wednesday, October 12. While she will not be sharing her poetry skills that evening, it will be her love of nature and knowledge of bird courtship and territorial displays that will be the focus of the free program scheduled to being at 7:30 pm. The garden club meets at Newtown Senior Center, 14 Riverside Road in Sandy Hook. Call Liz Arneth, 203-426-5359, for details.)