Watercolor, Early Spring, Jane Kohut-Bartels, 2011
dversepoets pub is OLN…Open Link Night! A wonderful time to post ONE poem and visit other poets……And…they will be on break until July 17th. Our Norseman Bjorn is presiding over OLN so be good.
Lady Nyo
SONGS OF SUMMER
Summer cartwheels through the sky!
The fertility of months
Expressed from field to orchard,
Above in sky, and deep below,
Where earth gathers green energy
And transforms by magic
Fruits for the mouth and eye.
Fledglings tipped out of nests
Try new-feathered wings on warm currents,
Calves butt heads and race in calf-tumble
Climbing rocks and playing king-of-the-hill,
Spring lambs past the date
For the tenderest of slaughter
Coated in white curls,
Smell of lanolin sweet in their wake.
There is fresh life in the pastures,
Now steady legs and bawling lungs,
They graze upon the bounty
And grow fat for the future culling.
Tender shoots of wheat and corn,
Waist-high, defy devious crows,
Paint once-fallow fields in saffron and
A multitude of hues-
Golden tassels forming,
Waving under an oppressive sun,
And when the sky bursts open
In random welcomed rains,
Heaven meets Earth-
The cycle complete.
These are the songs of Summer.
The bleat of lambs,
The cymbals of colliding clouds,
The noise of fierce, sharpened light,
The plaints of cows with taunt udders,
The loud quarreling of a swollen brook,
The scream of a hunting hawk
Calling for its mate,
The pelt of an unheralded storm
Upon a tin roof,
And the quiet sighing of
An unexpected wind-
Brings a benediction to the day.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2011-2017
Young RedTail Hawk, Jane Kohut-Bartels, watercolor
Our new Rose Garden this Spring/Summer. Looks small, and probably is but we stuffed 30 roses in this area. Mostly English (David Austen) and Knock Out roses that really need to be trimmed every two weeks. Some Mister Lincoln (on pedestals) and O.L. Weeks roses, and those gorgeous “New Dawn” (2) of them that cover the arbor. And lots of mosquitoes which curtail our using the garden.
All paintings by Jane Kohut-Bartels, various dates and various mediums
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2017
Tags: "Songs of Summer", d'versepoets pub, Jane Kohut-Bartels, paintings, poetry
Lady Nyo's Weblog 
June 27, 2017 at 6:53 pm
Oh Jane! This is so lovely. All the sounds sights smells of summer. The theme for Haibun Monday is summer. Wow. The summery haibun and now this gorgeous poem…perfection.
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June 27, 2017 at 6:59 pm
Thank you, Thank you! It’s not a haibun so I can’t link it to dverse, but I’ll keep it here for OLN. Thank you, Toni. You are in my thoughts today!!! Love you.
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June 27, 2017 at 8:52 pm
Jane, what a wonderful poem; it’s a vivid evocation of summer. I love see the summer beaming forth.
Gadzooks, your paintings, what can I say, but hot damn, you a very good artist.
Your rose garden must be delightfully fragrance.
Hugs sent your way. 😎
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June 27, 2017 at 9:27 pm
Hi Connie! That’s high praise in painting from you….a truly wonderful artist!
Glad you liked the paintings and the poem. It was a rather wild ride of summer. LOL! I love summer, too, but winter is my favorite season. I feel so much more productive then, but of course, being closeted inside does that.
Well, back to paintings. I am going to take up more of it this summer. Have been ditzing around with it, and there are lots of unfinished watercolors and a few oils. I would like to go back to oil but it’s something that watercolor took over back in ’95 and I only did a very few oils after then. As you know, the reverse of an entire process, technique.
The rose garden is iffy right now. The Knock Out roses are beautiful but mostly devoid of real fragrance. I did buy two at Walmart about three weeks ago for 10 clams each, without a listing…just on a dare and they have proven to be wonderful. Peach roses, big blooms that fade into dark pink petals on the tips. The scent is just marvelous. Have no idea what they are. But at that price, can’t complain. The New Dawns (about 15 years old planted where a gate once was to the fish pond) have a scent like Ivory soap. The Mister Lincoln and the weak stemmed English roses are all about scent….but those English roses have to be staked otherwise they scent the ground. I didn’t expect to have to trim roses as much as those Knock Outs but they are spectacular in blooming. And very, very easy to grow…and seems disease resistant to a fault!
Thank you, Connie….Hugs sent back to you!!!
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June 28, 2017 at 10:24 am
Vary nice poem, and such a beautiful rose garden! It’s nice to see you back online!
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June 28, 2017 at 4:55 pm
Hi Sweetheart!~ Curtis worked many hours to do this…..bring me back on line. And we are awaiting you coming home on the 3rd! Will clean out your room (storage now…) but I am going to leave all those pillows on the bed. You can sleep cradled in them. LOL! Love you very much, son.
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June 29, 2017 at 4:06 pm
What a gorgeous poem, Jane, overflowing with the sound of nature’s “songs of summer”…I so enjoyed reading this. Your descriptions are so clear, I could see and hear each animal and the sound of the thunder and rain on that tin roof.
Oh, yes, I did laugh at your note to me and love your delightful sense of humor, Jane. I guess your painting should be completely dry in order to get the desired effect! I love your idyllic little house that you share with all the animals…yes, of course, cats! And it goes without saying that you would need someone to split the wood. Lovely, sigh… xo
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June 29, 2017 at 5:18 pm
Gayle….it’s idyllic is right~! But we all can dream. Stuck in Atlanta, the only good thing is that we are surrounded with trees, and behind us (for now) is 9 acres of land, though the city of Atlanta, being the barbarians they are….have cut down all the trees. kudzu and bamboo are the only thing that goes back, but there is ONE pink dogwood in the fall. a very young tree. Atlanta is now the terrain of slumlords, investors and liars…plus the usual criminal element. Ugh. Having 4 dogs has been helpful,but the idyllic to be applied here is the fence that surrounds the property. Wish I lived in the country…as I did when a child.
Oh! that ‘learn as you go?’…I had tried to use sandpaper on what was still wet paper and it went right through a good painting. LOL! Now? I wait a day to use this.
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June 29, 2017 at 7:20 pm
This is really very well-penned! I’ll go back for a second read.
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June 29, 2017 at 7:21 pm
Oh! Thank you, Sweetie! I really appreciate the comment but mostly that you want to read it a second time. LOL!
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June 29, 2017 at 7:34 pm
I love the poem and your gorgeous paintings and rose garden, Jane! And I was pleased to see your poem was about summer too! I love the way you have captured the transience of summer in the first line and the richness of nature, and you’ve ended with a benediction – Monday’s and Tuesday’s prompts in one lovely poem..
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June 29, 2017 at 7:41 pm
Oh! Thank you, Kim. This is a bit old and I just decided to chance it. You know how technique and taste change over time…but thank you. Summer and Winter…oh, hell, all the seasons are evocative of so much potential writing…and painting. I’m going to try to do more forms at dverse. I need to learn a lot more about ;poetry. Thank you, Kim…again. I’ll be over soon. Now with a computer that works….it’s a lot easier. LOL!
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June 29, 2017 at 7:44 pm
I love this poem.. somehow I feel like it’s a pastoral… I actually listen to some summer music and I can actually see, smell and hear your wonderful idyll
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June 29, 2017 at 8:02 pm
Are those white parts in the watercolor “Early Spring” reflections through a window? If so, and even if not, I like the way it looks. All the sounds of summer are the songs of summer blessing the day. The “fresh life in the pastures” is paired with a remembrance of the “future culling”.
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June 29, 2017 at 8:25 pm
Sublime. All of it. And the roses!
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June 29, 2017 at 9:05 pm
Thank you, Jane. it’s pretty early in my poetry writing so I’m not so sure of this poem….but perhaps it stands as it is. Thank you, dear friend and sister novelist.
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June 29, 2017 at 9:09 pm
Hi Frank! First thank you for your comment …and it was enlightening! I love comments where people give insightful comments. I like what you say: “all the sounds of summer are the songs of summer blessing the day’. I like that very much. And it’s deep. that ‘fresh life in the pastures’ was paired by the future culling…on purpose…..we poets can tend to ignore the natural order of things…..we eat meat, there must be saddness and slaughter. Thank you, Frank. I ‘ll be over tonight.
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June 29, 2017 at 9:15 pm
Thank you, Bjorn. I was raised in the countryside of a sleepy village…..founded sometime in 1670’s. The pastoral figures in very deep in the memories…..I was raised on a non working farm that was built around the 1750’s. So, the pastoral figures very much in the imagination. Also , I was listening to Beethoven’s 7th…..a lovely adagio can’t remember where and what it was called. but it figures in strongly in most of my poems…and also Dvorak . Thank you, dear poet friend.
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June 29, 2017 at 11:25 pm
Oh, my friend, your poem took me to the home of my childhood! Thank you for that. AND, your art is a feast for the eyes. The rose garden is spectacular. Thank you so much for sharing.
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June 29, 2017 at 11:31 pm
Hello, Beverly! First thank you so much for reading and your lovely, lovely comment. I am so glad this poem ‘took you home’. Me, too. I think our childhood experiences are of such value, in poetry and painting and probably everything else. That rose garden is doing well in spite of our fumbling and neglect. Didn’t know that some roses needed weekly trimming. Those Knock Out roses are great growers but need a serious pruning eye and hand. LOL!
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June 30, 2017 at 12:46 am
An idyllic sensory journey. Love the line “The noise of fierce, sharpened light,”
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June 30, 2017 at 12:47 am
Magnificent images you have painted here. I feel transformed.
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June 30, 2017 at 2:43 am
thank you, Delaina….any transformation is good to me as long as it’s not into a living dead character. LOL!
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June 30, 2017 at 2:44 am
Thanks, no saint. I was wondering whether readers would see that as lightning. thanks again for reading and your comment.
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June 30, 2017 at 11:52 am
Yes, it clearly read as lightning for me!
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June 30, 2017 at 12:09 pm
Good and thanks!
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June 30, 2017 at 12:38 pm
I like that plethora of images 🙂
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June 30, 2017 at 3:23 pm
LOL! one of my favorite words…LOL! Good one, Jane. LOL!
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June 30, 2017 at 3:29 pm
It’s hard to say when you’re drunk…
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June 30, 2017 at 3:37 pm
I’ll try it next time. LOL! By the way, it is damn hard to get to your website….the poetry part. I keep getting your lovely home page but that’s not where I want to go. Hints?
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June 30, 2017 at 3:43 pm
Just click on the poetry tag in the left hand sidebar of the home page. Unless you see something different…
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June 30, 2017 at 9:20 pm
ok! tomorrow…my eyes are shot.
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July 1, 2017 at 2:42 pm
🙂
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July 1, 2017 at 3:06 pm
Trees are good! Sorry that Atlanta has the need to mow them all down…except for the young dogwood that seems to be thriving. Fences are good too! Too bad you can’t be in the country where your heart is, Jane, even though it seems you’re doing your best to create some lovely “green space” for yourself and I know you get much pleasure from that.
I knew what you meant when you spoke of using that technique on your painting for the first time. Yes, it must be dry first! Damn! 🙂
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July 1, 2017 at 4:41 pm
Yeah…it must be dry, like a lot of things in life. LOL! Atlanta is a barbarous city…run by thugs and fools and other ignorant folk. So the trees go, and the animals are constantly abused, and the people love their home-grown ignorance. They wallow in it. To try and change behaviors, attitudes is like whistling in the wind. The rose garden is just an ornament, and the other plantings, etc….the same. I do look up into the sky and trees in the distance and that gives me comfort. With 4 dogs we stillhave to be aware of what the hell is in the street at night. These folk walk down the middle of it and yell their heads off at 2am. No civility at all….but the hawks still circle, the raccoons pay a visit from time to time, as do the possums, a wild turkey landed a few years ago in my neighbor’s back yard, there are abandoned baby kittens to find and once in a while a puppy comes along….and frankly, with 11 cats here now (all fixed except for the 2month old kittens they were dumped on us by a lazy bastard of a neighbor (for the third time…) it seems these creatures bring love and comfort to us. We have 12 acres up in goat country NC, but there isn’t electricity/ a house/ nothing ….so that will be when we can retire IF we can retire. LOL!
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July 1, 2017 at 6:30 pm
It’s tough living in an environment that offers so little to nourish your soul. It’s good that the kitties that you have adopted give you some comfort as well as your beautiful rose garden. Things to be proud of, Jane. I hope that you will be able to retire to those acres in N.C. and maybe make it into that idyllic home that you painted. xo
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July 1, 2017 at 8:28 pm
That will be wonderful, Gayle…but next birthday I will be 70. I find my energies are slipping away and so is my body. Joints, knees, strength….but perhaps I will revive in the mountains (except for the ticks/mosquitos/cougar/bears) when I don’t have to worry about living in the city with people I have nothing in common. I would trade this historic house…too big for us by far now….for a small house of a few rooms. Gladly. What a blessed rain we are having!!! Too much of a good thing, but it does keep the heat down. xoxo
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July 2, 2017 at 2:28 pm
I can see how a change of scenery in the mountains could very well restore at least some of your energy, Jane. Feeling safe and living in a community of like-minded people could do wonders. Well, at least I hope you get to find out for yourself some day. I’ll be 66 in September so I’m right behind you and can relate to the body slowing down and the aches and pains but taking care of those two sweet granddaughters is helping keeping me feeling younger though for sure! xo
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July 2, 2017 at 4:14 pm
It’s amazing how a year can make such a difference in energy and physical abilities. I broke my hand July 4th 4 years ago, and now I have arthritis in my right hand that is really painful…along with back problem, etc. ugh. Growing old is for those who know nothing about it. LOL!
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July 4, 2017 at 12:19 am
Well, you know what they say…growing old isn’t for sissies! Ugh, is right, Jane!
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July 4, 2017 at 2:41 am
Absolutely, Gayle!!! It takes everything we got to grow old.
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