Poetry

Like Every Summer…

‘You can instruct but not command the heart’
(anon.)

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4 Comments

  • There is a certain sadness in this line… true!
    It is, however, also beautiful. The poem underlines the transient nature inherent in all treasures – ‘Like Every Summer’ – and reminds us to appreciate them while they are there and not to be too disappointed when they simply end, summed up aptly by these final lines:

    ‘And like every summer, she takes the directions, slips them in her pocket, waves goodbye, and goes her own way’

    Summer gives way to the golden days of autumn, the whiteness of winter and then sometime a long way off, when we have almost forgotten about it and least expect it – that very first day of spring! We can’t hold on to anything, least of all summer 2015.

  • True indeed. And the quotation “you can instruct…. -it’s significance?

  • Well, the heart knows all the answers. She is a feeling, knowing thing.
    We might try to tell her what to do or how to be, or even have her apologize for being this way or that… but deep down she knows that she is perfect just as she is and won’t compromise. As an old boyfriend once wrote on the cover of my writing book, quoting Shakespeare:

    ‘To thine own self be true’
    (And beneath it he scribbled in pencil, ‘the author of this book is a firm favourite of mine’)

    Maybe the heart in ‘Like Every Summer’ reminds me of that girl, wind in her hair, throwing cart-wheels on the beach…who won’t be told which way she has to be and I like her for that!
    Integrity…

  • …me too…

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