August (Edie Carey)

In Brazil, folk superstition associates bad luck to August, with the proverb "Agosto, o mês do desgosto" or "mês do cachorro louco" ("August, the month of misfortune" or "month of the crazy dog") being often heard - good thing it's come to an end, eh?...

Actually, it's been a lovely 31 days, and not just because it's my birth month - a few goodbyes, some hellos, anniversaries of tragedies, celebrations of life, rain, drought, clouds, stars, heartbreak, heartfull - in other words, all the wonderful dichotomies/paradoxes we are meant to experience in our time on this planet. As summer winds down, fall awaits - of course, here in South Florida, changes of season are mostly metaphorical anyway... :-)

SONG: August by Edie Carey

BOOK: August by Judith Rossner

POEM: August by Dorothy Parker

When my eyes are weeds,
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;

Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces' pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.

QUOTE: "Whilst August yet wears her golden crown, ripening fields lush-bright with promise; summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn." ~ Michelle L. Thieme