Scarce —
my summer darkness
with velvet hands
perfumes the night;
not even silent
it pretends to mourn
an absence
of the glow
that never leaves;
by sea at midnight
the moon’s
too pale to send
its silver into
the waves,
as sun returns again.
Elin Danielson-Gambogi
Today Punam hosts the Quadrille with the word darkness at dVerse. As we have now entered the period of very long days and very little darkness up her in the north I thought that would be a topic of a rather bright view of darkness.
May 27, 2024
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Love the opening stanza-
“my summer darkness
with velvet hands
perfumes the night;”
Thank you so much… our nights are so soft and bright.
Hi Bjorn, what a lovely poem. I’ve been in Norway, quite near your country, at least a lot closer than I usually am, and I experienced a bit of your long, long days. In South Africa, there isn’t a very bit difference in day and night lengths all year around.
We are not that far north (certainly not north of the arctic circle) but still it seems the darkness is very very brief,
Yes, Europe is like that in the summertime.
Sigh! I love the opening lines! So glad you shared the bright side of darkness, Björn.
But such long days must be tiresome.
You get used to the long days… they are much easier to cope with than eternal nights.
I agree…eternal nights become too much.
I love your summer nights quadrille, Björn, especially ‘summer darkness with velvet hands’ and ‘the moon’s too pale to send its silver into the waves’.
Thank you… summer nights are special.
Beautiful poem and the painting too
summer nights are specil anywhere in the world. but usure if i could cope with such soft darkness. here in a town mine is punctuated with electric lights.
Very little electric light needed here.
“it pretends to mourn an absence” There is always that rivalry. Nicely done!
Aah, midsummer nights. Such fond memories, and such a brilliant poem.
The whole poem is beautiful, but I find myself drawn to these lines:
it pretends to mourn
an absence
of the glow
that never leaves;
Thank you!
Lovely descriptive verse, and I do like the pretending to mourn, great touch of evil there
Thank you, and also I love the poem you linked up with the sheer terror of the missiles coming bring utter darkness.
“The glow that never leaves” — What an eerie feeling at night, the moon “pale” in the sky! Yet how well described so that i can almost imagine it.
Moon is too pale to outshine the twilight of summer.
Lovely poem. I like this take on today’s prompt.
Thank you
I can’t imagine a day that goes on for so long…I don’t think I could handle it, although I am travelling to Scotland soon so may just get a hint. Such delicacy in your words, and the moon to pale to send silver into the waves. Beautiful.
Scotland will give you a bit of the feeling, but it will start to get darker in August again.
This was delightfully evocative: paints a picture of seeing the moon over the sea – for me, that is a Cornish moon over Gylly beach
I think it is a twilight moon.
I love all the moons XD
Very nice quadrille
Much♡love
Thank you.
Can’t keep the Sun away. When you were in Texas, you would have been welcome to visit. We live in Katy, a suburb of Houston to the west. Next time, I hope.
..
We were in Fort Worth for a graduation and busy the whole time… but next graduation will be in Nebraska I think.
I also love the “summer darkness
with velvet hands”. The painting goes well with the poem, too.🖼️
Summer here is a darkness pretending.
Beautifully written
Thank you…
You’re welcome
Oh I love this! I have a friend currently on a cruise to Norway, she sent me some pics, I am so envious, its beautiful and your poem has brought her photos to life too….
Suzanne
Norway would be very similar…
the moon’s
too pale to send
its silver into
the waves,….. I love this image
Summer here is a lot of daylight.
I experienced these long spring/summer nights while visiting Iceland last year. What a beautiful description of them.
I hope you had good weather in Iceland… if not it will be a bit darker.
It was mostly good, and we were prepared for it. 🙂
Beautiful.
my summer darkness
with velvet hands
perfumes the night
I can see it, smell it, feel it.
I feel it as I sit reading your comment 🙂
Ha! That’s because those are your words!
So lovely. Deeply enamored of those “velvet hands.”
Thank you.. they are really nice this time of the year.
sigh – lovely poem – especially the first two lines. I cannot imagine not seeing the moon for such long periods of time. I wonder do you still feel the emotional tides of the moon? I think so…
I rarely enjoy the moon… when it’s visibel it is often too cold… August is the only month when we can hope to really enjoy the moon.
I guess you get used to shorter nights[?] I especially liked the lines:
‘ it pretends to mourn
an absence
of the glow
that never leaves;’
Of course… it is much harder with the long night in winter.
When we lived in Ireland we were a tiny biy further north but it did mean there was always a glow at the horizon so I understand this poem perfectly, Björn…
That glow, and the very early mornings are special… I remember being younger going home from the pub at dawn without it being very late.
The painting is lovely, as is your quadrille. I love the opening stanza, particularly the image of the summer darkness pretending the mourn the absence of the glow.
The painting is from Finland, but it reflects well how it looks sometimes.
Scarce – that hooked me, connected so well with the moon too pale, all the dark transitions pale.
Beautiful – the day barely holding its breath, and yes, the moon hardly getting a look-in.
Here in northern Scotland again I am being snared by the lazy, long twilights. Three weeks more and they will inexorably shorten… let’s go with the flow, friend!