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Now When The Summer Comes

Now when the summer comes, and for awhile
We live through all the haunts we knew when we were young
We say, “Let’s climb the Tower tonight.”
And this we do.
The lake sprawls far below entwined by blackness
Which are the juts of land.
The forest stillness shatters
As an owl flies hooting through the dark.
The stars are magnified a hundred-fold in brightness,
When across the sky a meteor flings out
Its stream of silver hair we think
Our very breathing made it so.
You turn, and put your arms around me,
While on tiptoe up I reach my arms about your neck.
Our eyes meet first,
And then our lips,
In full content and knowledge
Of each other’s love.
How far a cry this joy is from the earlier fierce anguish
We knew on this same Tower.
Instead of seeing you
My eyes look upward now into the sky
And meet the face of God.
For loving you, my own, is very near to praying.
Oh God, if in Thy wisdom Thou shouldst take
My husband from me ere his years are run,
Help me to cup my heart, like little children’s hands,
To hold the joy of life
As fresh as it is now.

Friends of Peninsula State Park (FPSP) recently published The Nature of Peninsula: A Park Ecology Sampler. The 90-page book, with color photographs, features a variety of essays, poems, articles, and historical writings about the beloved Door County park.
This excerpt highlights the park’s inspiration for poetry.
The Nature of Peninsula will be available at park headquarters and the nature center for $7.50. Mail orders are available for $10 (including shipping and handling). After recouping printing costs, remaining proceeds will be reinvested into future Peninsula Park educational publications.
For more information email Kathleen Harris at [email protected] or visit http://www.peninsulafriends.org.