The Summer Night

The stars wake with the moon, And the night is a dark embrace, The air thick with fragrances, Of jasmine and lilac sweetening time,

Where all is a hushed invitation— To listen to the nightingales’ serenade. And deep in the heart of the stillness, Nature hums a lullaby unnoticed.

Hushed now, I wander along the pathways, My heart open to each shadowed form, For in the summer’s gentle cover, Life’s mysteries unfold slowly, softly.

In every heartbeat, there is beauty; I catch the scent of union, As the veins of the evening pulse, Against the quiet fabric of night; Where every star is a note of bliss.

I feel the essence of being— Cradles of time, wrapped within darkness, Bathe me whole in luminous bliss.

• Rainer Maria Rilke