Thursday, July 19, 2012

Poetry Friday: Hot Summer Nights

It's Poetry Friday. Well, it will be tomorrow when you read this. I'm posting early as I will be on the road tomorrow. Tara is hosting the roundup at A Teaching Life. Lots of poetry out there today. 

This poem is such a beautiful picture of what are nights are like in the Deep South. They days are scalding and the nights are "Bone-idle and coral pink." I can't find very much information on Mary Hamrick except that  she "was born in New York and moved to Florida when she was a young girl. Her writing often reflects the contrast between her Northern and Southern upbringing." From decomP, a literary magazine.

At the International War Veterans Poetry Archives, I found this quote:
She once read, “We cannot know what quality a thing possesses when it is unknown.” She feels that it is important not to tuck away the things you like to do--one must focus on this moment of discovery (writing poetry) and hope for a startling consequence: professional acknowledgment and/or self-fulfillment.

I'm all for the startling consequence!

Woman on Porch by Clovis Heimsath 


Hot Summer Nights

by Mary Hamrick


It haunts me so
those summer nights
in dim lit homes

where music flows
and tempers flare
and lullabies fill the air.

I while away the hours
under the electric swell of light,
(pulse-scorched out).

Bone-idle and coral pink,
this dry spell grills,
but Southern nights do fill me.


Read the rest here.
at

7 comments:

  1. Irene LathamJuly 20, 2012 at 8:57 AM

    I too love the startling consequence AND the bone-idle and coral pink of southern nights. Thanks for sharing, Doraine!

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    1. DoraineJuly 20, 2012 at 8:56 PM

      So glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks for stopping by.

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  2. LindaJuly 20, 2012 at 12:04 PM

    I love the contrasts of "tempers flare" and "lullabies fill the air", and you chose the perfect painting to accompany this lovely poem. Thanks, Dori ffor introducing me to a poet I hadn't heard of before. I'll look for more of her work.

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    1. DoraineJuly 20, 2012 at 8:59 PM

      I enjoyed the few other poems byHamrick that I found online. I really liked the painting, too. Even though it's not night, the shadows are so lovely.

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  3. GatheringBooksJuly 20, 2012 at 12:37 PM

    It was our first summer in the States this year, and we spent it in sweltering hot Nevada, thus I could understand these lines perfectly:
    "this dry spell grills,
    but Southern nights do fill me."
    Thank you so much for sharing.

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  4. Andromeda JazmonJuly 20, 2012 at 9:04 PM

    I am with her on the music, tempers and lullabies. They do tend to go together this summer!

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  5. DoraineJuly 20, 2012 at 9:05 PM

    Myra, you picked the desert for your first simmer in the states? I'd love to know the reasons behind that location choice. Family? My son-in-law grew up in the desert and understands its beauty. But boy is it not. They lived in Las Vegas for a while where butter melted on the table on the patio at dinner. Georgia heat is moist, drippy, muggy. Very different, but not much nicer!

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