"A Summer's Walk"

with apologies to William Shakespeare

Hello, Poetry Friend

When my short bio appears online, it says my day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark. I walk before sunrise, year-round. But during the summer, even the earliest walks are unpleasant.

I’ve lived in Central Texas almost my entire life. I don’t know a different weather pattern. But a friend who lives in the Midwest asked me what my walks are like this time of year, and could I write a poem about it?

Challenge accepted!

But I had to play off William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. So lovely. So unfathomable to me.

Here’s his.

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

–William Shakespeare

And here’s mine.

A Summer's Walk

Shall I compare thee to a tepid bath?
Thou art more icky and more immoderate:
No wind doth wind across my path,
Summer: she is a cuss most obdurate;
Sometimes too hot, yes, before sunrise,
The clouds, they form but offer me no respite;
And yet, this hour, the fairest of the sky’s—
For any cool at all, I am desperate;
And so I walk, eternally and early,
Not griping at the undeserved sweat;
Not minding that my fingers swell and nearly
Cause my wedding ring to lose its fit:
   So long it lasts—from May and through September.
   So long I walk—in summer’s humid splendor.

–Megan Willome

Poetry Journal

• Write a poem about your summer. You can let ol’ Billy inspire you, or go your own way.

• Even if you are sonnet-unsure, try one. I know my rhythms aren’t exactly right on this one, but I got the rhymes. Progress!

• Describe a walk in your neck of the woods. If you like, email me what you write.

Happy poeming!

Megan