For the dverse prompt. Hoping this new editor is going to behave itself. And will it keep the formatting? I should make a book… Fifth try. Sixth.
I remember when we could enjoy the heat
and savoured cool beneath the trees,
the running stream.
I remember when the blackbird sang
all summer long a summer song,
and we lazed, pink-skinned
beneath the hedge where berries hung,
~but that was before~
the rains came rare and late
or early and too hard too much,
and now the trees hang dying heads,
and rattle dry-leafed branches
where no bird sings, throats too parched,
no strength to waste in beauty,
and we wonder what the spring will bring.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
Your bridge is very effective.
Thanks Ken. I’m trying to keep a journal and I find it more interesting to write poems for entries.
That’s a cool idea! 😀
It means I actually note something every day 🙂
😀
Great idea! Thank you for sharing this, Jane.
It’s working so far 🙂
:-))
If I could turn back the time it would be spring once again… I feel looking forward, somewhere November is coming
November will certainly come, but will the winter be wet enough to compensate for the summer drought? It’s in doubt.
Your lovely words were worth the struggle Jane! Simply beautiful.
Thank you, Linda. It was so much easier with the old editor. I’m starting to feel nostalgic for programs now!
Melancholy thoughts…but lovely way to journal! I also miss the old WP editor (sigh).
It’s a good way to get me to jot down observations 🙂
The old editor will be sorely missed.
May Spring bring rejuvenating rains and may our lives regain some semblance of normalcy!
I’ll settle for the rain 🙂
Very sad and poignant. I find it beautiful in what it describes in such changes being permanent, and old ways are lost to time. The first few lines were evocative to me, taking me back to my childhood where late spring felt like that. Such a stunning and visceral write. I enjoyed reading it greatly.
Thank you, Lucy. I look at the trees and think they are older than I am, they remember what it was like to have water and rain, and they are suffering now. It’s sad to watch and feel helpless to do anything about it.
So much lost, and who knows what is coming? Like Ken said, your bridge works very well. I got one up with the new editor, but I couldn’t tell you how I did it. 😀
Thank you.
Nobody knows how fast it’s going, but the predictions get worse not better.
Did you use the new editor with the building blocks or just the classic block?
I used Classic block, but I didn’t go through WP administrator. There were a list of blocks, so I just choose Classic and pasted my poem in. But then I had to find the space inserter and other things. I just clicking on things. 🤣
No, I stopped going through admin just to take a trip back in time.
I didn’t realise there was a space inserter. I just kept going back and putting in the spaces the editor kept taking out until it got bored, I suppose 🙂
😀
So much has changed over the decades hasn’t it? This is utterly exquisite in its nostalgia 💝
Thank you.
It’s changed so much in the last few years and the change is accelerating. It frightens me.
Sorrowful sentiments. Feelings that many are feeling. Thank you for sharing.
Almost everyone is coming around to the idea that the climate is changing, but most just leave it at that, a casual observation.
Fine work indeed, Jane. I esp like the summer song all summer long and the too-hard, too-much rain.
My hat is off.
Thanks Ron. If all the people who claim to love nature actually looked at the trees, they’d see they are suffering. But the sugar beet needs irrigating first, doesn’t it?
Such poignant words. The use of “~but that was before~” was the perfect link.
I too share in the wish for the old editor, this new WP is horrible.
Thank you. The new editor is awful and I have the impression that the concession to nostalgics, the ‘classic’ block, intentionally doesn’t work.
You have captured what was with the reality that change has occurred. A wonderful bridge to shift the reader into another frame of thought.
Thank you. It does feel as though we’ve crossed a bridge, and if we’re not careful we won’t be able to cross back again.
I like the use of the bridge – over the running stream, beyond the hedge where berries hung to the devastation of climate change weather. It’s so sad to see trees hanging dying heads and rattling dry-leafed branches. What next?
There are whole rivers completely dry because the water is siphoned off for crops, many of which are useless (sugar beet) or to use for animal feed (maize) almost equally useless. We’re going to have to change our crop choices radically. If it won’t grow without masses of water, we shouldn’t be trying!
Your two parts really show the uncertainty there is now over the weather and it is true there can be much less water in some parts and too much in others. I followed a talk on this new block editor and thought it might be difficult for poems and spacing. Your poem and link line look good spatially on my iPad. Can be so different on phone.
Everything is uncertain except that if we don’t change our ways, we’re facing catastrophe.
It took six attempts to get the formatting to ‘stick’. It disappears for no apparent reason. I don’t know what the new editor is good for. It doesn’t have a way to add images that I’ve found. That’s why I used the ‘classic’ block. Seems to be the only way of adding images.
Oh dear, and I use lots of photos for different types of posts. I will try on a computer first because always have problems on the app. Yes, we need to vote in the right kind of politics to act on climate change and nature restoration. The Spanish government had good plans but think the virus may have thrown this and there is so much criticism now.
All those people who we heard saying how much they preferred the new slower rhythm of life, hearing the birds instead of traffic, fewer people about, cleaner air etc are now being shouted at for wanting to destroy the economy. Somebody needs to take things in hand.
Yes, it needs serious thought and planning so changes can be made effectively so people and aspects of the economy do not suffer a shock. Or we will all suffer in the future.
I suppose we need to shift working populations into different types of jobs gradually, giving school and university leavers different options but gradually means starting now, not when we’re already in a nose dive.
Yes, and wish more had been done before now. I think by gradually I mean slightly less drastic than the coronavirus response!
Yes, I agree. If it’s going to put people’s backs up it will fail.
We wonder what the future will bring.
Nothing good so far as I can see.
Seems like it.
Your comparison describes our time. Seems like the weather like everything else in in a state of flux! Continually changing. Maybe back then we did not think of things like Global Warming!?
We had no idea then of the terrible things we were doing. We do now, but it doesn’t change anything, does it?
No everyone demands their “right ” way!
And it’s always the easy, comfortable way (for them).
I have the free site and had a hard time switching to the blocks and what was lost in the change, I can’t imagine what you are goin through!
I have the free site too, and the new editor doesn’t come with a user handbook. It doesn’t seem to do anything that’s of any use to me. Why they think this block idea is a great one I’lll never understand.
I agree I still can’t find how to change the font on my posts. It is definitely not an improvement!
It’s certainly not intuitive.
We poets observe and experience nature minutely and take note. These changing ways of the weather bring no comfort.
Once you start to note them down, there’s a horrible pattern takes shape.
This is so fitting for the times which we are living through. My friend found a lake full of dead fish the other day as they’d been starved of oxygen due to excessive heat. It seems apocalyptic, but I hope it isn’t. I especially loved the lines: and rattle dry-leafed branches/where no bird sings, throats too parched which recalled La Belle Dame sans Merci to me. Excellent work.
Thank you for the compliment! I see what you mean about the word choice.
The nuclear power stations here are routinely closed down in the summer these last dozen years or so because the river water they use to cool the reactors is already too warm. Any warmer and the life in the rivers will die. It’s partly because agricuture pumps off the smaller watercourses and the main river levels drop dangerously low, shallow and warm. I can’t see it changing unless we change our agricultural practices. If a crop requires masses of water, you just can’t grow it in the south, period.
A nice rendition of the eternal cycle. The older we are, the more we look forward to rejuvenating spring and those healing rains.
I think the earth is beginning to feel the same way.