As midsummer dusk crawls
calmly over grass,
through brush and thickets,
with dew-retracted claws
as careful as a sated stray-cat;
suddenly aroused
two blackbirds bicker over nest
and egg,
while from the lake we hear
the eerie calls of loons.
We decide to follow and to walk
beside this endless gloom,
to follow paths to meet
the water-mirror by the pond
to wait
to transition into dawn.
Summer Solstice and midsummer in Sweden is special. For Toni at toads.
Also linking to Poetry Pantry
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Oh, I would love to experience Midsummer in your part of the world, Bjorn! You captured it so very well in your poem.
The long long daylight is really magic… right now it’s almost 11 PM and still not dark at all.
I was in Northern Scotland once and experienced something a BIT similar. Not to your extent but it was magical!
Your alliteration fleshes out your images in this delightful portrayal! Love it!
I am so jealous of this experience. I can see and feel the delight, imagine the welcoming of the new sun, warmth and light all around. The magic of Nature is perfectly enthralling.
I love this and the images in it. I would cut and paste what is my favorite but it would be the entire poem. The sated cat, the call of the loon, water mirror…all of it. One of your best to date.
Love the way, which you describe this moment, to the reader, Bjorn.
What a magical experience that must be! Beautifully recounted.
Beautiful floaty images I was really transported
I love the idea of midsummer crawling across the grass with dew-retracted claws. I can almost see it!
One feels the harmony with the natural rhythms here. Such a resonant description.
The Swedish style of Midsummer celebration sounds enchanting! I love how completely immersed the subject is in the natural world.
Every walk is magical when we look and listen.
Beautiful, Björn. Your poem is filled with mystique. I also think of the
dancing around Midsommarstången that is dressed in leaves and flowers. Even midnight swim in a lake, hearing the morning song from the birds soon after midnight.
You really got me going and I long for this. 😊
miriam
Good… it’s really the most magic of nights.
Wonderful throughout, though I especially liked the water mirror finale. Bravo!
Luv the “water-mirror” and your awaiting the new Summer sun
Happy you dropped by my sumie Sunday today
Much❤🕊❤love
This is gorgeously written, Bjorn! ❤️ I especially love the image of the; “water-mirror by the pond,” .. 😀
The night of the longest day … perhaps its Eve, or simply a night echoing far with great light. How else to calibrate such wonderful light? Perhaps it as as Shakespeare found, that to dream is to sing. Loved it.
This is lovely, a sustained note of calm sounding in setting that seems (at least to me) like a fairy tale.
I was completely lost in your words Bjorn. This is beautiful.
Love everything about this, especially the gentle stray cat in the 1st stanza. It seems that we both enjoy long dusks here in the high-angled latitudes.
Most impressive! I daresay, one of your best to date.
I love to watch a cat on the prowl. Especially when they are after a prey. Have a nice summer, Bjorn.
..
the night is a stray cat!
what lovely imagery of a midsummer night. how i like to experience it. the best i can remember is 8 pm in Taiwan when the sky is still lighted.
This piece has some beautiful, evocative lines … it is so well crafted. It channeled a bit of a Robert Frost vibe, for me … Though it is very different, of course, it has that dreamy ‘stopping by woods’ vibe that is so mesmerizing (bordering on transcendent). Just lovely.
‘while from the lake we hear
the eerie calls of loons.
We decide to follow and to walk
beside this endless gloom,”
lines that simply floated from the page/screen … and carried me away with them.
I love your description of dusk..beautiful writing!
So late in replying but I ‘m glad to make it finally – the personification of dusk is wonderful – the dew/mist here slowly climbs up our tree filled hill quite often – crawling is a good word for it and the “dew-retracted claws – well I wish I”d written that!