Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry: Making the Turn

Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate

Sarah Jane Woolf-Wade, a resident of Bristol, often writes poetry inspired by the coast of Maine. In this week?s poem, a change in the wind pattern during late August leads to a reflection about life.

Making the Turn by Sarah Jane Woolf-Wade

There comes a time
with dependable rhythm
every year
late in August
when the wind turns around,
blows in air from the north
to chill the bay
and the year turns its face
away from summer.
Monarch butterflies
ripple down to zinnias that bend
toward late afternoon sun,
bank their wings
and lean into the last leg
of their unavoidable flight plan.
Sometime in every life
there comes that inevitable turn
when we face away?
I can?t be sure when that moment was for me.

Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2008 by Sarah Jane Woolf-Wade. Reprinted from Down the Bristol Road, Snow Drift Press, 2008, by permission of Sarah Jane Woolf-Wade. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, Special Assistant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at poetlaureate@mainewriters.org or 207-228-8263.