Summer

Once I Saw a Little Bird

Poetry

Once I saw a little bird

going hop, hop, hop.

And I said , “Little bird,

will you stop, stop, stop?”

I was going to the window

to say, “How do you do?”

But he shook his little tail

and away he flew.

~~ Anonymous

Upside Down

Poetry

It’s funny how beetles
and creatures like that
can walk upside down
as well as walk flat.

They crawl on a ceiling
and climb on a wall
without any practice
or trouble at all.

While I have been trying
for a year (maybe more)
and still I can’t stand
with my head on the floor.

~~ Aileen Fisher

Heat Waves Shimmering

Poetry

Heat waves shimmering
one or two inches
above the dead grass.

— Matsuo Basho (Translated by Robert Hass)

Moonlight Slanting

Poetry

—

Moonlight slanting
through the bamboo grove;
a cuckoo crying.

— Matsuo Basho (Translated by Robert Hass)

The Dragonfly

Poetry

—

The dragonfly
can’t quite land
on that blade of grass.

— Matsuo Basho (Translated by Robert Hass)

But For a Woodpecker

Poetry

But for a woodpecker
Tapping at a post, no sound
At all in the house
— Matsuo Basho

With Every Gust of Wind

Poetry

With every gust of wind,
The butterfly changes its place
On the willow.
— Matsuo Basho

No one can tell me,
Nobody knows,
Where the wind comes from,
Where the wind goes.

It’s flying from somewhere
As fast as it can,
I couldn’t keep up with it,
Not if I ran.

But if I stopped holding
The string of my kite,
It would blow with the wind
For a day and a night.

And then when I found it,
Wherever it blew,
I should know that the wind
Had been going there too.

So then I could tell them
Where the wind goes…
But where the wind comes from
Nobody knows.

— A. A. Milne

Sudden Storm

Poetry

The rain comes in sheets

Sweeping the streets,

Here, here, and here,

Umbrellas appear.

Red, blue, yellow, green,

They tilt and they lean,

Like mushrooms, like flowers,

That grow when it showers.

— Elizabeth Coatsworth