-This poem opens the summer series with the long generous light of early summer and the sense that the world has widened into fullness.
The light stays longer on the field,
resting warm on grass and stone,
as if the world has widened out,
to hold a little more of life.
The trees keep every leaf awake,
the garden lingers in its green,
and even shadows seem less sure,
they thin beneath the patient sun.
No haste belongs to such an hour,
the sky goes on, and on with blue,
while every living thing appears,
more fully given to the day.
This is how summer first declares,
not only heat, but breadth and grace,
a season opening all its hands,
and asking nothing but that we remain.