In 1969
Some called it the Summer of Love, & although the clustered,
Motionless leaves that overhung the streets looked the same
As ever, the same as they did every summer, in 1967,
Anybody with three dollars could have a vision.
And who wouldn’t want to know what it felt like to be
A cedar waxwing landing with a flutter of gray wings
In a spruce tree, & then disappearing into it,
For only three dollars? And now I know; its flight is ecstasy.
No matter how I look at it, I also now know that
The short life of a cedar waxwing is more pure pleasure
Than anyone alive can still be sane, & bear.
And remember, a cedar waxwing doesn’t mean a thing,
Qua cedar or qua waxwing, nor could it have earned
That kind of pleasure by working to become a better
Cedar waxwing. They’re all the same.
Show me a bad cedar waxwing, for example, & I mean
A really morally corrupted cedar waxwing, & you’ll commend
The cage they have reserved for you, resembling heaven.
Some people spent their lives then, having visions.
But in my case, the morning after I dropped mescaline
I had to spray Johnson grass in a vineyard of Thompson Seedless
My father owned—& so, still feeling the holiness of all things
Living, holding the spray gun in one hand & driving with the other,
The tractor pulling the spray rig & its sputtering motor—
Row after row, I sprayed each weed I found
That looked enough like Johnson grass, a thing alive that’s good
For nothing at all, with a mixture of malathion & diesel fuel,
And said to each tall weed, as I coated it with a lethal mist,
Dominus vobiscum, &, sometimes, mea culpa, until
It seemed boring to apologize to weeds, & insincere as well.
For in a day or so, no more than that, the weeds would turn
Disgusting hues of yellowish orange & wither away. I still felt
The bird’s flight in my body when I thought about it, the wing ache,
Lifting heaven, locating itself somewhere just above my slumped
Shoulders, & part of me taking wind. I’d feel it at odd moments
After that on those long days I spent shoveling vines, driving trucks
And tractors, helping swamp fruit out of one orchard
Or another, but as the summer went on, I felt it less and less.
As the summer went on, some were drafted, some enlisted
In a generation that would not stop falling, a generation
Of leaves sticking to body bags, & when they turned them
Over, they floated back to us on television, even then,
In the Summer of Love, in 1967,
When riot police waited beyond the doors of perception,
And the best thing one could do was get arrested.
poem by Larry Levis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Washington McNeely
Rich, honored by my fellow citizens,
The father of many children, born of a noble mother,
All raised there
In the great mansion-house, at the edge of town.
Note the cedar tree on the lawn!
I sent all the boys to Ann Arbor, all the girls to Rockford,
The while my life went on, getting more riches and honors—
Resting under my cedar tree at evening.
The years went on.
I sent the girls to Europe;
I dowered them when married.
I gave the boys money to start in business.
They were strong children, promising as apples
Before the bitten places show.
But John fled the country in disgrace.
Jenny died in child-birth—
I sat under my cedar tree.
Harry killed himself after a debauch,
Susan was divorced—
I sat under my cedar tree.
Paul was invalided from over study,
Mary became a recluse at home for love of a man—
I sat under my cedar tree.
All were gone, or broken-winged or devoured by life—
I sat under my cedar tree.
My mate, the mother of them, was taken—
I sat under my cedar tree,
Till ninety years were tolled.
O maternal Earth, which rocks the fallen leaf to sleep!
poem by Edgar Lee Masters from Spoon River Anthology
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Until Now...
Until now, thought I’d never live to see
The steady growth of yonder cedar tree
Growing up, we moved quite frequently
Establishing roots is new to me...
(Thanks Laureen for our Cedar Haven nest)
ROTMS
poem by Ray Lucero
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Cedar Tree
You dug a well
You dug it deep
For every wife you buried
You planted a cedar tree
The best
The best you ever had
I stand where you stood
I stand for bad or good
And I am green and you are wood
The best
The best he ever had
I dig a well
I dig it deep
And for my only love
I plant a cedar tree
The best
The best we ever had
song performed by by Indigo Girls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Oh Yeah
Oh Yeah she was taking me over
Oh Yeah it was the start of the summer
On warm June evenings
She would come to my house
Still in her school skirt
And her summer blouse
Talking too long as the night came on
It was the best time of my life
Her bee stung lips
Kisses sweeter than wine
The things she whispered
With breathless sighs
The summer air was soft and warm
Her eyes were making silent demands
As her hair came undone in my hands
Oh Yeah she was taking me over
Oh Yeah it was the start of the summer
Driving her home after midnight
I felt so good everything was alright
Her thoughts seemed so lost in the night sky
I remember everything
I don't know why these things ever send
I sometimes wish it was that summer again
I still see her in my sleep
And hear the sighing of the summer wind
Still I don't regret one thing
Oh Yeah she was taking me over
Oh Yeah it was the start of the summer
Oh Yeah she was taking me over
Oh Yeah it was the start of the summer
It felt just like it was the start of forever
Oh Yeah it was the start of the summer
song performed by by Ash from 1977
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Keepin The Summer Alive
When its ice cream weather get the gang back together
Roll down your windows and ride
Theyll be sleepin in the sand dunes dancin in the streets
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer ah live)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(ah keep the summer)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer alive)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(try to keep the summer)
When its ice cream weather all the girls will look better
The boys try to give them a ride
To the one last party fore the school bell rings
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer)
Theyre just tryin to keep t alive)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(alive)
Lay down in the sun
And watch the clouds roll by
And bein with the one you love
In the summertime
When its last september back in school well remember
The cure for the wintertime blues
Grab your girl hit the road head on down to the beach
Youll be comin home with sand in your shoes
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer )
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(sum sum summer)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(alive)
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Were just tryin to keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Just tryin to keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Just tryin to keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Well just
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Keep the summer alive
Theyre just tryin to keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
Yeah tryin to keep the summer alive
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
(yeah yeah uh huh I know well keep the summer)
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dear Summer
Dear summer,
It all happen on april 13th
It was the brightest day I have seen
The sun was shinning bright and the air was fresh,
And the green grass remind me why you summer are the best.
I no longer felt down cause you were around
Aand I felt like the luckiest girl cause it was summer I found
I thought of how I could repay you for all the love you gave me
Cause summer your love was simply amazing
You made the dead butterflies in my stomach revive
How can summer this year make me feel so alive?
I could of sworn this summer would last me forever
But everyone would warn me to be a bit clever
Cause seasons always change and weather changes moods.
And when my summer is here she helps the flowers bloom
But the flowers all die when its winter cause of the cold
I guess no one takes heed to what they are told.
Well im sorry my summer but today the sun isn't shining as bright
And when day light savings bbegins I gets colder at night.
Summer I noticed the leaves are starting to die
And the flowers that you love are no longer alive.
All the birds fly north and I just feel empty inside.
All of this is happening summer cause you were a lie.
They're all sick of the false hopes that you have brought them
But maybe we'll all find real love in autumn.
poem by Selina Cobain
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Icehouse In Summer
A door sunk in a hillside, with a bolt
thick as the boy’s arm, and behind that door
the walls of ice, melting a blue, faint light,
an air of cedar branches, sawdust, fern:
decaying seasons keeping from decay.
A summer guest, the boy had never seen
(a servant told him of it) how the lake
froze three foot thick, how farmers came with teams,
with axe and saw, to cut great blocks of ice,
translucid, marbled, glittering in the sun,
load them on sleds and drag them up the hill
to be manhandled down the narrow path
and set in courses for the summer’s keeping,
the kitchen uses and luxuriousness
of the great houses. And he heard how once
a team and driver drowned in the break of spring:
the man’s cry melting from the ice that summer
frightened the sherbet-eaters off the terrace.
Dust of the cedar, lost and evergreen
among the slowly blunting water walls
where the blade edge melted and the steel saw’s bite
was rounded out, and the horse and rider drowned
in the red sea’s blood, I was the silly child
who dreamed that riderless cry, and saw the guests
run from a ghostly wall, so long before
the winter house fell with the summer house,
and the houses, Egypt, the great houses, had an end.
poem by Howard Nemerov
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Cedar Has Fallen
The spirit of compassion and supplication,
And of the waves of the sea to touch my heart;
For the cedar has fallen into my garden.
I am from the waterless pit and,
The Nile will dry up for me to wlk through;
For the axe is now laid against the tree of love.
Blessed are the merciful and love to the King!
But the cedar has fallen next to me;
And Rachel is now weeping for her children.
Curse be the deceiver!
And of lamentation and bitter weeping;
But at the fall of the night i will be with you.
Be as wise as the serpent and,
Ride on the donkey of love;
For i do have five loaves of bread and two fish to share,
And each day has its own trouble in this life.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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The Silken Tent
She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To every thing on earth the compass round,
And only by one's going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightlest bondage made aware.
poem by Robert Frost
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My Box
My box is made,
Of cedar wood,
Always open,
As it should,
Inside, my secrets,
So long forbidden,
But no more,
No longer hidden,
I trust you with,
My life itself,
I know you love me,
For I have no wealth,
You love me dear,
Know me true,
Which is why,
I trust you,
Forever more,
You may look inside,
For I trust you,
And I know, I need not hide,
My box that's made,
Of dark cedar wood,
Will remain open to you,
As it always should,
poem by Kieran J1996
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On A Late Impiric Of Balmy Memory
His namesake, born of Jewish breeder,
Knew 'from the Hyssop to the Cedar;'
But he, unlike the Jewish leader,
Scarce knew the Hyssop from the Cedar.
R. et R.
poem by Charles Lamb
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Good-Bye & A Hello
Good-Bye sweet, sweet summer, must you always go away?
Oh how I shall miss your short warm nights and long hot days
For once can't you be here to stay?
This summer shall remain special to me
In my memory this summer will forever more be
No it wasn't a summer of love, loss, or mystery
But was a summer of realization
A summer of learning more about me
This Summer I asked questions about myself that I never did before
This summer I answered those questions honestly
Pondered many thoughts
And did so much more
This summer during the warm nights I looked up at the stars
And wondered if this lifestyle was for me
This summer I looked up at the stars
And was forced to ask and answer honestly
If this was where I wanted to be
Oh summer even though I will miss you so
A new season is around the corner
To Fall I must say hello
While I shall miss staring up at the stars
While the warm summer breeze plays with my hair
I won't mind the falling leaves or chilling air
While I'll miss being warmed by the sun's never ending rays
I won't mind watching the leaves turn to different colors & shades
Or mind watching as the chilly air picks up the falling leaves
And blows them away
While it somewhat pains me to bid farewell
To summer that has left me forever changed
Maybe my fall will be like my summer
Maybe by the end of it I'll never be the same
So I must say goodbye to you summer
But I'm not to distressed or worried at all
After all who knows how much I'll have changed or leaned about myself
By the end of beautiful Fall
poem by Tiger Lily Love
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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This is what summer means to me
A warm summer day
without a cloud in sight
A baby bird
Taking its first flight
This is what summer means to me
Trees full of leaves
Giving me shade
My dad and I
Fishing in the glade
This is what summer means to me
Watching my daughter
Play on her slide
And how She will never
Want to come inside
This is what summer means to me
See how she enjoys the day
Until the very last
Just like me as a child
Long ago in the past
This is what summer means to me
The distant roar
Of a neighbors lawn mower
Unruly grass be gone
For ever more
This is what summer means to me
The smell of charcoal
And good friends all around
Birds singing in the trees
What a lovely sound
This is what summer means to me
© JPM 5/25/2008
Body and Soul
Vacant bedroom
Empty cup of tea
Lingering perfume
Bowl of potpourri
Music box on the bed
Photographs and memories
Old cards and letters reread
Life's methodologies
An open hope chest
Made from a cedar tree
Nothing to suggest
Where she can be
Bright summer night
Don't have a clue
Hope she is all right
Where did she go to
Hear her now
She took a stroll
Missed my frau
Body and soul
poem by Charles Hancock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Modern Love XXI: We Three Are
We three are on the cedar-shadowed lawn;
My friend being third. He who at love once laughed,
Is in the weak rib by a fatal shaft
Struck through, and tells his passion's bashful dawn
And radiant culmination, glorious crown,
When 'this' she said: went 'thus': most wondrous she.
Our eyes grow white, encountering that we are three,
Forgetful; then together we look down.
But he demands our blessing; is convinced
That words of wedded lovers must bring good.
We question; if we dare! or if we should!
And pat him, with light laugh. We have not winced.
Next, she has fallen. Fainting points the sign
To happy things in wedlock. When she wakes,
She looks the star that thro' the cedar shakes:
Her lost moist hand clings mortally to mine.
poem by George Meredith
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Slow Summer Dancin' (One Summer Night)
I'll set the stage while she's still dancing
I'll make the music soft and slow
Then I'll turn down the lights
Make things just right
For every slow song that we know
Over and over again
One summer night
(Do do do)
We fell in love
One summer night
I held you tight
(One summer, one summer)
You and I
(One summer, one summer)
Under the moon for love
(Ooo one summer, one summer)
We'll spin around this room together
I'll treat my angel really nice
We'll fall in love, we'll fall forever
Thank God for lazy summer nights
Over and over again
One summer night
(Do do do)
(One summer, one summer)
I kissed your lips
(One summer, one summer)
One summer night
(One summer, one summer)
I held you close
(One summer, one summer)
You and I
(One summer, one summer)
Under the moon of love
(Ooo one summer, one summer)
(One summer, one summer)
One summer night
(One summer, one summer)
(One summer, one summer)
(One summer, one summer)
(One summer, one summer)
(One summer, one summer)
(One summer, one summer)
One summer night
(One summer, one summer)
Under the moon of love
(Ooo one summer, one summer)
Under the moon of love
(Ooo one summer, one summer)
Under the moon of
Love
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Slow Summer Dancin'
I'll set the stage while she's still dancing
I'll make the music soft and slow
Then i'll turn down the lights
Make things just right
For every slow song that we know
Over and over again
One summer night
(do do do)
We fell in love
One summer night
I held you tight
(one summer, one summer)
You and i
(one summer, one summer)
Under the moon for love
(ooo one summer, one summer)
We'll spin around this room together
I'll treat my angel really nice
We'll fall in love, we'll fall forever
Thank god for lazy summer nights
Over and over again
One summer night
(do do do)
(one summer, one summer)
I kissed your lips
(one summer, one summer)
One summer night
(one summer, one summer)
I held you close
(one summer, one summer)
You and i
(one summer, one summer)
Under the moon of love
(ooo one summer, one summer)
(one summer, one summer)
One summer night
(one summer, one summer)
(one summer, one summer)
(one summer, one summer)
(one summer, one summer)
(one summer, one summer)
(one summer, one summer)
One summer night
(one summer, one summer)
Under the moon of love
(ooo one summer, one summer)
Under the moon of love
(ooo one summer, one summer)
Under the moon of
Love
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Last Days of Summer
Whatever the way the summer days end,
In the type of summer is how it has been,
Whether a good one or bad one,
The last days of summer,
Can be sad or happy endings,
As each season ends,
With another one beginning,
The summer could have been,
Miserable yet,
Sun scorching us everyday,
And sunlight shining on all our faces,
It is how it is,
Out there where all is seen,
In,
Summer days of fun,
Summer days of love,
Summer days of seeing,
Summer days of been,
Out and about where summer is,
And when summer came and went?
With a mundane feeling that it left?
Was the last days of summer,
And the begining of another,
Autumn as we know it,
Fall in other places,
Where the ending of one season shows,
By the decaying of it,
When Autumn Fall shows,
Where we will wrap up and snuggle,
With warm cuppas drinks,
With a book,
Or,
Catch up on watching films,
Yet,
Still,
Musing over the summer days,
Of sunshine memories,
Now,
Warm hats and gloves,
With rustle leaves,
That rustle beneath,
Our feet as we walk,
Through the park,
And see,
The summer leaves turn,
To autumn shades,
Taking in,
The last days of summer,
Reflecting,
And remember,
The falls of Autumn's,
Is the signs of summer,
That has ended,
And minglings with,
All that falls,
From the summer ending,
To autumn beginnings,
Is the,
Decaying,
Of summer,
To regrow itself,
For next season's of summer,
When it begins again,
Yet,
In between,
There's,
Autumn,
Winter,
Spring,
Till,
Again,
Last days of summer,
And all in bloom again.
poem by Ellen Ni Bheachain
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My Summer
my summer is boring
my summer is wake
my summer is harebell
my summer is stupid
my summer is in my sisters house
my summer is in a sweet 16 prates
my summer is in my cozens house
my summer is away from my house
my summer is just dome
my summer is boring
my summer is messing my men
my summer is the worst summer of my bf
i wish i was whet my men this summer
i wish i was happy in the summer.
my bday is in the summer
this summer is just this summer: (
poem by Jencelyn Marin
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Summer Melanoma
‘That's nice, ' I said, as Juno bathed me
In her sun.
Soon, a bronze Adonis - ogling girls!
It must be done!
I rolled over; bared a snowy skin
To bake and burn and sear beneath a din
Of ultraviolet rays…
Now I'm on the ward, I count the days to
Lesser pain, torrential rain; accepting
I'm a fool to be so vain!
I bore an awful mole, you see -
A growth, a blighted entity
Presenting as an ugly melanoma!
Oh! how tricky life can be
When unprotected by the sea, to
Sizzle with a barbecue aroma!
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010
All rights reserved
summer summer summer summer summer
summer summer summer summer summer - what a bummer
summer summer summer summer summer
summer summer summer summer summer - what a bummer
summer summer summer summer summer
summer summer summer summer summer - what a bummer
poem by Mark R Slaughter
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