End of Summer

Stanley Kunitz

An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.

I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones,
Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me
The song of my marrow-bones.

Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was over.

Already the iron door of the north
Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows.

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Source: poetryfoundation.org. From The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz.
IMG: Fireflies sparkle in a Pennsylvania field at dusk © thekidshouldseethis.com
AWIP: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/poetry/2023/09/14/end-of-summer