Friday Flowers: Sunflowers for a Gloomy August

Sunflower at the South Coast Botanic Garden

Dark August
(By Derek Walcott)

So much rain, so much life like the swollen sun
of this black August. My sister, the sun,
broods in her yellow room and won't come out.

Everything goes to hell; the mountains fume
like a kettle, rivers overrun; still,
she will not rise and turn off the rain.

She is in her room, fondling old things,
my poems, turning her album. Even if thunder falls
like a crash of plates from the sky,

she does not come out.
Don't you know I love you but am hopeless
at fixing the rain ? But I am learning slowly

to love the dark days, the steaming hills,
the air with gossiping mosquitoes,
and to sip the medicine of bitterness,

so that when you emerge, my sister,
parting the beads of the rain,
with your forehead of flowers and eyes of forgiveness,

all with not be as it was, but it will be true
(you see they will not let me love
as I want), because, my sister, then

I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones,
The black rain, the white hills, when once
I loved only my happiness and you.


Here in the South Bay of Los Angeles, we have a local weather system called June Gloom. Towards the end of May and persisting until around the Summer Solstice, this region is blanketed by a thick marine layer that gives us a month of grey skies and mild humid weather. This year, June Gloom started in early May and has been with us ever since.

It's freakin' annoying!!!

I'm very sensitive to light conditions. They have a notable influence upon my productivity and overall mood. It takes a bit of mental effort to shrug off this influence, but I manage. However, I'm really getting tired of "June" gloom. Fortunately, bright flowers make me happy. ;-)



Sunflowers at the Madrona Marsh


And sunflowers are the best!!!

Here's a fun vid:

Enjoy!!!