Lynn Ungar

Lynn Ungar lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife, teenaged daughter, two dogs and two cats. She serves as the minister for lifespan learning for the Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online Unitarian Universalist church. Lynn’s first book of poetry, Blessing the Bread, earned her fans around the world.

May this be the last truly hot day,

the crest of the heat wave

slipping to shore. May the rains come,

the air clear, the ground soften.

May we wake to a sharpness 

in the air, and sleep tucked in blankets

and the quiet of the absent fan.

Already the days are shorter.

May this be the moment we tip

toward a new season. Time to let go.

Of course I am grateful for summer,

for the gathering in. The freezer is full 

of peaches and berries and the 

emerald of pesto stacked in trays.

I’ve waded in the river and marveled

at the mountain, naked of clouds.

Every last bit a gift, and no cause to complain. 

But still, enough. I’ve started to identify with

my dahlia, which still blooms, but looks 

drier and more bug-eaten each day.

Surely the change is coming soon.

We live by faith in the promise of rain.

— Lynn Ungar