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Invitation to Poetry: The Threshold of Summer

Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #59!

I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post).

As I settle into my new life here in Vienna, I am aware that August for many shops, is a time to close up and go off on vacation.  Not being obsessed here with the American quest for continual productivity and availability, I have found the many signs in store windows indicating they are closed for holiday to be refreshing.

Every season has its invitation.  Summer asks us to contemplate what the spaciousness of blue skies and the long opening of daylight is calling our hearts to consider?  As we grow closer to autumn’s harvest, what are the fruits of summer you still want to savor?  What is ripening in you?  What sweetness is asking you to give your whole heart to it?  Let your response to these questions emerge in a poem and share below with the Abbey community.

On Friday, August 10, I will select one name at random from the submissions and the winner receives a free copy of my upcoming book Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings — Annotated & Explained straight from SkyLight Paths when it is released later this month.


If you are looking ahead to fall for an online opportunity to listen more closely to your own threshold calling, join us for Women on the ThresholdOr if you want to nourish your inner monk and artist, consider Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist.  Both experiences are 12 weeks long; both promise lots of transformative possibility . . .

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Mary Camille Thomas

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Mary Camille Thomas’s reflection “Beholding God’s Sanctuary.” My Grandma Sammie knew many psalms by heart and could quote them chapter and verse.

Read More »

49 Responses

  1. no demanding schedules
    endless possibilities
    unabashed time with friends
    and
    there is wine

  2. Through my dreams my soul is woven
    Exquisite in design

    Tangled threads of life are seeking
    Out a path where I can find

    A space to house my spirit
    And give for to my dreams

    Where finally this dreamer
    Can dance upon the wind

  3. Regarding Karen

    This summer, visiting my friend,
    I coveted
    lace tablecloths she used as curtains
    antique radio cabinet covered with plants,
    the way she sprinkled tiny vases
    of flowers throughout the house
    gracing bureaus in every bedroom
    perfuming the bath
    centering the table where we ate crumbcake
    and homemade jam for my birthday breakfast.
    In the yard an ancient swing of rope-and-board
    set my city daughter soaring.
    Dented metal chairs in the cutting garden,
    so like the one my Grampa sunned in,
    swung me back to him and home,
    while soft talk of friendship
    warmed us and I yearned
    to adopt
    her grace-filled, gentle way of being.

    1. I so love these lines…

      “Dented metal chairs in the cutting garden,
      so like the one my Grampa sunned in,
      swung me back to him and home,
      while soft talk of friendship
      warmed us and I yearned…”

      So wonderful. I can see it and feel it.

  4. It’s Summer, And It’s Only Just Turned Spring

    People come and people go.
    Outside away the winter blows
    and all around
    are people unaware.

    They don’t see and they don’t say
    and they’re too busy anyway.
    They’re missing out,
    maybe they don’t care.

    But some of us have been where
    there’s a chance to see the world
    a little clearer…

    I see a little clearer now…

    As I rise, picassoed skies,
    speckled with the purple breath
    of the sun,
    moves me deeply.

    Fragrances the new day brings,
    carried on the silent wings
    of zephyrs,
    come to greet me.

    And with my spirit full, I turn to
    face my life and take it off
    its hinges…

    I’ll let my spirit soar…

    You know it’s summer
    and it’s only just turned spring,
    Yes it’s summer
    and it’s only just turned spring.

    I just lost my face
    to a stranger in a great big crowd.
    She looked at me
    and took my face away.

    Met an angel in a bar,
    bet that I could make her laugh.
    She took my bet,
    and her halo slipped away.

    Tried to cadge a cigarette off her
    sister she turned me down.
    But that’s ok…

    I don’t smoke anyway…

    You know it’s summer
    and it’s only just turned spring,
    Yes it’s summer
    and it’s only just turned spring.

  5. Could it be
    time has come,
    my calling seen
    my waiting, done.

    Standing patient
    be believed,
    fidgeting at Door
    called, once more.

    Hold this chalice
    Break this bread,
    Sign the Cross
    Bless this head.

    The flower blooms
    the garden ripens,
    days grow shorter
    the nights, lengthen.

    Stay the course
    Keep my temper,
    Listen keenly
    Give up, never.

  6. thresholds

    ordinary time
    tail waving the kite escapes
    behold the summer

    shimmering daylight
    backyard butterfly traffic
    caterpillars soon

    fragrance blossoming
    sweet roadside honeysuckle
    aroma tickles

    afternoon picnic
    savoring watermelon
    tastes like a poem

  7. Mid-Summer

    August, full of hazy smog,
    holds its breath,
    heavy blossom scent
    hangs in the airless air,
    leaning on my chest.

    I escape for a week
    to the cool Catskills,
    flush with sky blue
    and deep green woods,
    I breathe mountain air.

    When I return
    I find the garden
    worked overtime
    in the thick August heat
    while I hiked foot hills.

    Garden bounty on display,
    bonanza of beans,
    plethora of peppers,
    basket full of basil.

    I barely breathe,
    waiting for the front
    to storm across the island
    and rinse away sultry air.

    I search the sky for mountain blue
    knowing it will return
    to the coast,
    filling me with gratitude
    for summer joys.

    A midsummer sigh
    August exhales
    my soul expands.

      1. Thank you! Sometimes a poem is hovering near the edge of consciousness and a prompt brings it to the surface. In this case, the blue sky in the photo did that for me.

  8. Late Summer Sabbath

    The sun burns and the heat wilts, while shade and cool water call my name.

    The bumble-bee, looking improbably fat and fuzzy, tumbles by dusted with pollen.

    I am melting thru the cords of the hammock, finally at rest.

    Fall, with the gathering and harvesting will come soon but today I revel in the good news that I’m neither a mad dog nor an English man.

    It is good.