Serenade
__Late summer’s twilight skies
Hum with the song of a thousand faint voices—
_A choir of myriad sprites that rejoices
__In shadow and moonlight.
_Loud it resounds, though it lies
Deep in bough-shadows hidden. Like a dream
_The silhouetted treetops themselves seem
__To serenade the night.
__Now listen—hear the song,
The lulling hum, micropolyphony
Of seeming chaos merged to harmony
__Primordial yet thrilling.
__Listen! You have not long:
The silent nights of winter fast draw near,
When naught but windswept silence meets the ear
__That longs to hear this trilling.
Happy the Flower
Happy the flower that blooms when autumn’s breath
First cools September’s torpid skies to paint
The languid foliage and days grown faint
With life’s last burst, its climax reached at death—
Happier than the flower of budding spring
With naïve pastel hues, that drinks fresh rains
Then withers long before the sun’s course wanes,
For long days left unnoticed, languishing.
But happier still the flower whose stem is cut
At summer’s height, unravished by decay,
Resplendent in its fullest, brightest bloom:
Like autumn’s it concludes in glory, but
Like spring’s deigns not reserve its bright array—
Height and end admired in a crystal tomb.
Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. He has published four books of poetry and his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.
Adam, your musicality really is shining forth in “Serenade”– I really like this particular form, ABBCADDC– that with the alternation of three and five beats makes for an unexpected and elevating experience for the mind’s ear… it is so songlike… very beautiful!!! I would love to see more poems in this form!!! And I can very much relate to the last line of “Happy the Flower”: I try to get fresh-cut flowers weekly or more often during the summer– and winter also if anything decent is available– I definitely have had my full share of watching the passing from “height” “to end” of all my vases– I have 2-3 going at any one time!!! Anyway especially fine work as always Adam!!!
Adam, there is so much to commend these two poems from the refreshing rhyme schemes to the depth of sensitivity of the imagery they communicated to my mind. The longing for the sounds of chaos, as you put it, that become harmonic in our memories and the longing to hear them again as the silent nights of the metaphoric winter approach is beautifully and skillfully written. I like the idea of the “Happy Flower” being cut in its prime and held up for admiration at its peak rather left withering and languishing.
These are two beautiful and professionally crafted poems. “Serenade,” with its heterometric structure, subtly guides the reader to take in the poem slowly, so as to appreciate the rich diction. And the delayed rhymes of lines 4 and 8 in each stanza holds the reader back, so as to make the poem’s closing two lines (with their deep pessimism and memento mori finality), seem humanly troubling rather than a mere comment on the weather.
The sonnet of the three flowers is almost conceit-like in its style. And like every conceit, it presents a quasi-logical procession. The fates of the autumn flower and the spring flower are shown to be just an aspect of the endless pattern of nature, while the summer-cut flower, placed in a crystal vase, serves the much higher purpose of human perception and appreciation. It too dies (in a crystal tomb), but it is unravished, resplendent, and in fullest bloom. This puts it beyond nature, and more important.
This makes the sonnet very like those still-life paintings of cut flowers and gathered fruits and various man-made objects. It shows the triumph of human thought and perception over the mere fact of natural growth.
It is a pleasure to read professional work like Adam’s, together with expert commentary such as that above. Thank you all.
“Serenade” is an exquisite weaving together of visual and auditory beauty (“micropolyphony” is marvelous!) It evokes the poignant feelings that the overlap of seasons brings — the longing “to hear this trilling.”
I love the brilliant comparisons, in “Happy the Flower”, of each season’s blooms. “Life’s last burst”, and “admired in a crystal tomb” are among the phrases that paint insightful images.
Indeed, I am serenaded by your fine poetry, Adam.
Thanks for the reads.
A wealth of symmetry and symbolism here, Adam. The serenade has an explicit staging stanza, leading to the performance where I hear “carpe diem” (or “carpe vitam”) as the theme. It appears to be a solo voice with several instruments or other voices taking smaller but significant parts (as happens in the story of any meaningful life). The final word, “trilling,” sings on indefinitely, it seems, after the warning appeal to listen to the thrilling song. In that way it resembles the happiest flower cut in summer and placed in crystal to preserve it, and to offer it for admiration.
I especially like your “Serenade,” Adam, for its attention to sound–which in most poems is mainly a background behind the objects of sight. “Micropolyphony”–is that a word? Well, now it is, and a good one. The music rejoices, lulls, and thrills, and then raises in the poet’s mind the brevity of it all and the near-soundlessness of the coming winter. What I like especially in this poem is the light hand you bring to it; the words don’t thunder, they urge attention, then say no more, as if we should be listening too. Skillfully done.
You had me, Adam, with the nebulous notion of where summer ends and fall begins. I am partial to astronomy, while most of my family is attuned to weather and insist that fall begins on Labor Day. We are all entitled to our musings, and you make the best of your own, but in the first poem (stanza 2, line 4) I would prefer “primordial and thrilling” to “primordial yet thrilling.”
In the second poem you rightly reckon a flower’s enshrinement in human perception and memory as its final cause (purpose). But, dammit, in my conversations with flowers I have found that nearly all of them are obsessed with having sex with bees and other pollinators
I understand Mr. Anderson probably has wonderful conversations with flowers, but perhaps after the sex they like to be admired in crystal? Or Lenox china? Thank you for the lovely poems.