HydrangeaRoll of thunder comes closer.
Wind shrieks in branches,
Deluge blurs distant shore
and beats heavily on roof.
Rabbits shelter under tree roots,
birds nestle in sturdy nests
and wait, like us, for
the tempest to cease.
Lainie Senechal
Pink Peony
Summer Returns
As summer returns
restless weather settles
into warmer hours.
Now birds raise broods
in hidden nests.
The nights – mild and calm.
A brilliant sun favors
the long, hot hours.
This is the desired season,
despite expected cycle,
a place we wish to stay.
Lainie Senechal
Grasses and flowers
Late August Malaise
Near the end of August,
in the languor of hot, humid hours,
I begin to lose focus -
so many arrivals and departures:
beach plums appear, then ripen,
swallows gather in great numbers,
flit randomly in loose flocks,
staging their leave to southern skies.
After a season of protection
and careful noting of fecundity,
plovers have deserted the beach.
A memory returns of one
who left last summer,
not to reappear in our time;
another arrives from abroad.
Some leaves look weary, already
dropping their garment of green.
They release to run amok
among grasses that ripen to gold.
Nature looks overgrown
and dusty, not quite under control,
ready to let it all go.
Autumn will cool this clamor,
then winter will settle it all
under a blanket of white.
Lainie Senechal
Summer Sunset
Mid- Summer
Cacophony of sparrows
that nest in each corner
of porch break stillness
of lake absent of breezes.
All is calm except
occasional announcements
from boys’ camp
and a solitary speedboat,
skier in tow.
Waves from its wake
cause docks to creak,
for a moment,
then settle in to silence.
The lake and sky
remain serene, like lovers
after heat of passion subsides.
Lainie Senechal
Announcement: Lainie will read poetry at 11 AM during Amesbury Days Art Show and Sale, Saturday, June 24th at City Hall, Amesbury, MA.
Along the Shore
Salisbury Summer
Summer on Salisbury Beach,
a week at my Aunt’s cottage,
adults worked all day,
Two cousins and I left on our own.
At ten years old unfamiliar,
but desired, days of freedom.
Instructions: “You can go to
the beach but stay near lifeguards.”
Our unknowing babysitters,
who paid little attention,
more focused on bathing beauties,
applying sunscreen, on blankets nearby.
We rode waves so rough
they slammed us into the strand,
filled our bathing suits with sand.
We arose coughing and sputtering
from swallowed salt water
then raced through the surf
to catch another wild ride.
When bored, we walked
to jetty of large, black rocks,
leapt from boulder to boulder,
scraped hands and feet
on slippery, rough surfaces,
while sea pounded through
gaps in rock pile below.
In evening we would wander home,
fall asleep early with expectations
for another day that
would be fully ours.
Lainie Senechal
Published in Ibbetson Street #39, June 2016
Announcement: Lainie will read poetry at The Whittier Home and Tapestry of Voices 18th annual collaborative reading of the poetry of and inspired by John Greenleaf Whittier on Sunday, August 14 from 3-4:30 PM. The poetry reading will take place in the Victorian garden of the Whittier Home Museum, 86 Friend street, Amesbury, MA.