The poetry of heatwaves
As our over-hot weather goes on I had a look on the web for poems about heatwaves. There seem to be an amazing number of them, although google often produces the same thing in different contexts.
One of the first I came across was John Stammers’ Like a Heatwave Burning:
It was the hottest summer on record;
we flew into rages at the drop of a pin.
The heat made cacti of us all.
I love that line about cacti. There are plenty of things that make me feel cactus-like, not only in the heat. There are several more verses all as entertaining (link above).
Ted Hughes also had something to say in Heatwave which starts:
Between Westminster and sunstruck St Paul’s
The desert has entered the flea’s belly.
So far I’ve not come across any subject that doesn’t have at least one poem of its own.
e a m harris 