Hello, everyone! I’m filling in for Matthew this week while he enjoys a vacation with family. At Skidompha, we can’t believe we’re heading into the final stretch of our Summer Reading program- it’s been a ton of fun, and we’re looking forward to the last couple weeks of events and programs.
This is for me one of the sweetest times of the year. Late August is a transitional moment, poised between the height of summer and the full advent of fall. The shift in the light to that rich gold, the crispness of the air in the evenings, state fairs starting to appear, the overabundance of zucchini in our kitchens- so much evokes this mini-season which can feel all too brief. The fleeting nature of these weeks lends them their poignancy; for many of us, this is a time closely associated with heading back to school, either as students or as teachers, which also means a curtailment of our unstructured hours. I vividly remember late afternoons toward the end of August, reading on the porch, bereft in the knowledge that soon these evenings would be occupied by homework. But the knowledge made the enjoyment of these moments all the more savory.
Recently, I found out that August 21st is celebrated as Poet’s Day, a day to acknowledge all the wonder which poetry can bring to our lives. This feels appropriate to me. As Rita Dove points out, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” It involves deep insight into the core of our emotions and our linguistic reserves, and a removal of distractions, of the extraneous. Late August, poised between two seasons, a moment of transition between our daily rhythms, invites us to really focus on the essentials. How and what we enjoy to the fullest, how we create the most meaning for ourselves and others, how we best center the natural world.
Whatever your late August days entail, I hope you can take the time to make the most of them and to see the poetry in them. As always, we can’t wait to see you at the Library!
Chloe Deblois
Adult Services Librarian
Skidompha Public Library