Summer Heat

Nature of the beast

In the crack of my eye I see, as a stealthy cloud slithers by,

Unblemished heaven, broad blue strokes of summer sky.

Bright treasure from  this vault descends to paint, guild, anoint your skin.

Through apple branch motley, light, then shadow, dark then gold again

My perfect languid leopard.  Leapheart, snarl into my arms.

Bite cat! Scratch, scrape, cause endurance of a thousand harms.

Bloody my back, stripe me like a tiger marked, that catlike

I too can join the summer heat, feel hot sun upon me beat

Suffer fang, relish claw, pull you near with every strike

Then gasping, spent, beneath the bough relent,

Rebuild the purse we both have spent.

Drowse in my arms, rest, far too soon this day will end

Far too soon cold autumn night begin.

Reviews

[Great Aunt Astri]

Yes, well, my mind went into overdrive. Then I concentrated on the structure. Good unstilted rhymes. Some lovely alliteration ..languid leopard, scratch scrape, bloody my back. A jaunty beat. And a conclusion .... but why no rhyme here? Altogether, nicely done.

[Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere]

Wow, great poem, reads so fluently, great imagery. I liked it very much. Enjoyed reading it and hope to read other work of you.

[Delmar Cooper]

Much obliged, I too want to read more of your work, savoring one at a time, otherwise I would be a glutton.

[Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere]

Good comparison. Always my pleasure, Delmar :)

Rudi

[h d e rushin]

Yeah! This is a wonderful poem Delmar......dana

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks Dana. A little stilted, a little tight, but what the hell.

[garrijd]

Nice metaphor. In the vein of John Donne. Well done.

[Delmar Cooper]

Illustrious company, too illustrious , Carew on a bad day maybe.

[TL Boehm]

Through apple branch motley, light, then shadow, dark then gold again

My perfect languid leopard. Leapheart, snarl into my arms.

loved the tone and language of this piece but am especially fond of those two lines. Well penned.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading and your comments.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i agree with nusquam...really excellent metaphor...elaborate description of a hot day in september...how the heat is like a cat that claws at us...but soon those claws will be retracted....
and the cat will sleep in winter.

[h d e rushin]

poetry is work! so much so, that at the end of the day, you breath quickly,
your ankles throb and pulsate, you lay on the ground.


wonderful effort delmar.
dana

[Delmar Cooper]

Dana, thanks for reading and for your comment.

[Jennie Baron]

This truly captured me; it is a beautiful word painting.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thank you. After reading your poetry your comment has the authority of one who knows how.

[Jennie Baron]

You're very welcome and you're too kind.

[Nusquam Esse]

Such clever use of metaphor on this one; I am used to seeing very tactful descriptions in your work, but this has some incredible metaphoric descriptions. I am particularly biased to the third and fourth lines. Once I saw 'vault descends to paint, guild, anoint' my interest was immediately piqued... and then 'apple branch motley' sealed the deal; I adored these lines and the way they crafted an image in mind.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for your comments, a version of this poem has been floating around obsessively in my head for a long time. It felt good to finally be rid of it.

[K Scott Smith]

This is a very complex and intricate piece. Dark for sure and very interesting.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thank you for reading. It is very complimentary to hear this from a serious poet. I enjoy and respect the poetry you have posted here. I live between Trussville and Springville. We are neighbors.