It was summer. The wind blew
away from me, and I stayed here thinking
about a certain mountain. Things got green
then forgot, and in their forgetting
remembered everything that was not
grass, or me.
-from “It Was Summer. The Wind Blew” by Matthew Zapruder
It’s Poetry Friday!
This spring my poetry group, the Nevermores, read (or reread) You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World edited by Ada Limón. Kim recently chose one of the poems from that collection, “It Was Summer. The Wind Blew” by Matthew Zapruder, for our weekly prompt.
The task was to “Write something in a similar style, or write a response, or pick a line to use as your title or strike line.” Although Zapruder’s poem is about events experienced between a father and son, the line “Each day was that same sweet holiday that never ended” jumped out at me, reminding me of carefree summers spent as a child.
School is beginning to wind down here in PA and is already over for the summer in many parts of the country. So today I offer you
As School Dismissed for the Summer
(inspired by “It Was Summer. The Wind Blew” by Matthew Zapruder)
We forgot everything we knew
about saddle shoes
and sitting in rows.
We rode our bikes to the playground
after parting with precious pennies
for jawbreakers and Mary Janes.
We whiled away afternoons
tossing jacks on the front stoop—
the sides of our hands rubbed raw.
We searched basements
for old mayonnaise jars,
perfect for lightning bugs.
The porch glider became a boat,
the backyard a meadow,
the tar roof a beach.
We swapped Archie comics,
borrowed Nancy Drew mysteries,
created stories in tablets stashed under beds.
Each day was that same sweet holiday that never ended
until it was time, once again,
to remember.
Linda has the roundup today at A Word Edgewise where she offers quotes about childhood to welcome summer. Be sure to stop by for lots of poetry goodness.
Imagine the Possibilities 
I loved this poem when you shared it with us and love it again, now. The saddle shoes and sitting in rows takes me back to my own Catholic school years — thinking I, too, “forgot everything we knew.”
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Thanks, Patricia!
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Wonderful poem — brought back so many great memories of summers gone by! Loved riding my bike, playing jacks, buying penny candy treats and reading Archie comics :).
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Thanks, Jama.
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Lovely, Rose. The saddle shoes are such a great detail to include! xo
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Thanks, Irene!
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Thanks for this poem, Rose. I have so many of the same memories, especially Nancy Drew books and mayonnaise jars for lightning bugs. I also remember we would do endless puzzles and board games. (Are you going to Boyds Mills for Poetry Palooza in November?)
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Thanks, Margaret. YES! I will be a Boyds Mills for Poetry Palooza in November. I’m assuming you will be, too? That will be awesome! I’m also planning to be at NCTE this year and hoping to catch up with some poetry friends.
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I’m doing Boyds Mills rather than NCTE. Perhaps we can work out sharing transportation. I have to fly. I need to find a group to get a ride share from the airport.
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Wow, Rose!! Your gorgeous poem captures the summers of my childhoods so lyrically. Beautiful! I especially love “We forgot everything we knew/about saddle shoes/and sitting in rows.”
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Thanks, Mona!
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What a beautiful poem! It’s nostalgic but not sappy. Just perfect–all those specific memories of jaxs and pennies for candy and mayo jars for fireflies. I love it!
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My summer, too, Rose! It’s a special memory poem that you’ve written for many of us! It feels as if you’ve brought it all alive again! I so miss seeing fireflies, but one summer my daughter & family went back to visit my brother, in Missouri, and they learned about them. We don’t have them in Colorado! Thanks for every part!
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Fireflies like the ones we remember from the east aren’t found west of the Rockies. I have a picture book manuscript about it that never went anywhere. Maybe I should work on it again.
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Rose, you did bring back summer as a child, bicycling to the corner store for penny candy and playing with friends. Uniforms were placed far away and “penny pushers” or “clam diggers” were in style. The last stanza of your poem is a wonderful ending.
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Thank you, Carol.
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Oh my, Rose! You’ve written a wonderful poem – it took my right back to my childhood days, too! Love the lines, “We rode our bikes to the playgroundafter parting with precious pennies for jawbreakers and Mary Janes” Yes! And Nancy Drew mysteries – I still have some that I’ve never been able to part with! Thanks for bringing back these wonderful summer memories.
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Your poem struck a chord. Saddle shoes and Nancy Drew. Poetry Salon is June 27.
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During childhood, summer often seems to stretch on forever- or least we wanted it too. Rose, your poem is both nostalgic and evocative in its depiction of those summer days. As I sit in the midst of a winter weekend, your words deliver a needed shot of warmth.
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The concrete details and the charming nostalgia work together to make this poem sing, Rose. I can relate to so much of it. Lovely!
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Thanks, Karen!
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Lovely imagery and sounds Rose, so visual too, I could see it as a poem-book, thanks!
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