A strange glow calls me from my book

Come away. Look about:

Orangish yellow light behind

The lowering clouds --

Even the grass is burnished.

Poplars glow before mountains,

Heavy in dark relief--

The whole world is written in

Gold leaf, every branch and sheaf 

Illuminated, testament to glory.

Summer Night

Taken by an evening chill,

I leave my sun-soaked seat,

Forsaking hummingbirds

That trouble trumpet vines

And bumblebees that startle

At their sudden rise and fall.

Conceding feeders to

The scrabbling squirrels

And serviceberries to

The reign of mockingbirds,

I force my trembling self

To pause as life,

Unshaken by the coming

Of the night,

Grows dark against

The purple evening sky.