Do not go gentle into that good night / Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

~~
Dylan Thomas (1914-1954)
from Collected Poems, 1952

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

Dylan Thomas biography 

"Do not go gentle into that good night" read by Michael Sheen Courtesy National Theatre.

The Wind Blows Where It Will / JD Shirk

The Wind Blows Where It Will

ICMA, Coin Toss, 2009.

 CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

It may have been a memory
Of something long ago
A faded scene, or passing dream
Or just a random thought
It may have been a poet's line
Wrote from a searching heart
A verse or two, that carried through
Thoughts from a long gone time
It may have been the universe
Fate written in the stars
A destiny or fantasy
A cosmic happenstance
It may have been a childhood wish
A dream of hero's fame
A school yard crush, in teenage blush
Remembered through long years
It may be that we'll never know
Or never need to know
Just how we choose, and what we lose
Or win, by fickle fate

~~
JD Shirk, 2024

JD Shirk Poetry

[All rights reserved - used with permission]

JD Shirk biography

The Withered Leaf in June / W.M. MacKeracher

Image by George J. Dance created with

 Grok (xAI). CC0 1.0 public domain.

The Withered Leaf in June

It cannot be; it is not nearly
Midsummer yet, my eye deceives;
But, yes, it is; I see it clearly –
A bit of red among the leaves.

'Tis so with youth: her dearest pleasures
Her fragrant boughs like green leaves deck;
But yet among the green she treasures,
With equal care, some withered speck.

~~

W.M. MacKeracher (1871-1913)

from Songs of a Sophomore, 1892 

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

W.M. MacKeracher biography

June / Annette Wynne

Harry Clarke (1889-1931), from 

Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, 

1916. Wikimedia Commons.

June

A roof of blue, a carpet green,
And flowers and tall trees between.
The faintest little breezes blowing,
And little tinkling streamlets flowing.
Then if you look
In some small nook,
You'll find the fairies all together
Dancing, for this is their weather!
But be careful when you go —
Lest you fright them, dancing so;
Underneath a broad green stem
One wee piper pipes for them,
Pipes a tiny fairy tune —
"O a fairy month is June" —
A very fairy month is June!

~~
Annette Wynne (1889-1952)

from For Days and Days: A year-round treasury of child verse, 1919

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

[July]

Annette Wynne biography

Sketch / F.S. Flint

Sketch

Gold on her head, and in her heart's heart, gold!
She seems to breathe a rhododendron glow
Of blossoming colour, Fra Angelico
Would love to picture — angels aureoled!

An early Summer in her smiling glance,
The virginal sap and sweetness of her June,
And calm serenity of a crescent moon,
Weaving a glamour where the young leaves dance.

She has too something of unclouded skies
Of day and night about her, blue and dark
In turn, and deep. You see it if you mark
The limpid laughing purity of her eyes.

~~
F.S. Flint (1885-1960)
from In the Net of the Stars, 1909

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

F.S. Flint biography

"Sketch" read by Nemo. Courtesy LibriVox Audiobooks.

(Poem begins at 29:55)

June Night / Hazel Hall

June Night

The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century,

 1825. Wikimedia Commons.

Into my room to-night came June,

A band of stars caught up her hair,
And woven of the mist of moon,
And patterned from the leaf-laced air,
Her garments spread a soft perfume
Over the shadows of my room.

But hardly had her coming stirred
My darkness with a hope like dawn,
Or had my anxious silence heard
Her faint footfall, than she was gone.
She went as though with a quick fear
Of the eternal winter here.

~~
Hazel Hall (1886-1924)
from Curtains, 1921

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Hazel Hall biography

June's featured poem

  

The Penny Blog's featured  poem for June 2026:

Adlestrop, by Edward Thomas

Yes, I remember Adlestrop –

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June

[...]

(read by poet Arthur L. Wood)

https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2015/06/adlestrop-edward-thomas.html