September day in wind, light and color - Long Island Poem for Sunday

'South Meadow'
Fairfield Porter
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY,
Gift of the Estate of Fairfield Porter

Today's poem reads as if it were written by a painter. And it was - by Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) - painter, art critic, poet, and a long-time resident of Southampton, NY. The poem parades an interesting progression of color and light throughout a September day: "An intense light / Sucks colors out,"; wind pulls the clouds around and "colors multiply". Another poem of his, 'A Painter Obsessed by Blue', is devoted entirely to the battle of colors - blue, yellow, and red: "Blue walls crumble under trumpets of yellow / Flowers - one unrepeatable discovery - / And red prevails against the adversary."

Many of Fairfield Porter's paintings are on display at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY. His archive is digitized at the Smithsonian's Archive of American Art.

September
Fairfield Porter

A warm wind
Blows all night
No clouds
Brilliant stars.
The barometer drops
On the outermost edge
Of a hurricane.
Rainy morning
The barometer shifts
As the wind wheels
To the north west.
In adjusting clouds
Colors multiply
Colors of shells,
Until the sun
Bursting through
Tears them apart
Again and again.
An intense light
Sucks colors out,
A blue-black day.
The north west gale
Rips whitecaps off
The bay turned
Dark purple-green:
"The wine-dark sea."
As night comes
The wind drops
The stars again
Mars in the south
Brightest of all.

'September' by Fairfield Porter from the 1986 'Long Island Poets' collection by The Permanent Press in Sag Harbor. Reprinted with publisher's permission.
'Long Island Poets' can be purchased from The Permanent Press.

'Calverton', 1954
Fairfield Porter
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Gift of the Estate of Fairfield Porter

'Potatoes', 1960
Fairfield Porter
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Gift of the Estate of Fairfield Porter

'Red House', 1954
Fairfield Porter
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Gift of the Estate of Fairfield Porter

'The Beach At Noon', 1972
Fairfield Porter
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Gift of the Estate of Fairfield Porter

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Previous Long Island Poem for Sunday - Geese - musing on cause and effect, Long Island Poem for Sunday

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