For me, summer begins when I spot my first firefly – or lightning bug, if you’re from the southern U.S. As a kid, I would run across my parents’ yard in the early evenings as soon as the first glimmer of their flickering fluorescent lights would appear, and I would try to catch them in my outstretched hands. 

For poets Robert Frost and Jaqueline Woodson, fireflies are also synonymous with summer – so much so that they both wrote short odes to the magical glowing bugs. Those poems are below, as are other poems dedicated to summer creatures and the natural world. We hope you enjoy these works and consider what symbolizes summer to you. Let us know at @NEAarts on Twitter, and try your hand at writing your own poem!  

"Sometimes/ in the park/ in the near dark// one comes out/ you'll hear/ a little kid shout// Lightning bug! Firefly!" From "Firefly" by Jacqueline Woodson 

"Little fly,/ Thy summer’s play/ My thoughtless hand/ Has brushed away.// Am not I/ A fly like thee?/ Or art not thou/ A man like me?" From "The Fly" by William Blake

"And these, in particular, whether trout or corn lily,/ onion or bellwort, just cut/ this morning and standing open in/ tapwater in the kitchen,/ will close with the sun." From "Wildflower" by Stanley Plumly

"Not, exactly, green:/ closer to bronze/ preserved in kind brine,// something retrieved/ from a Greco-Roman/ wreck,/ patinated and oddly// muscular." From "A Green Crab's Shell" by Mark Doty

"Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,/ And here on earth come emulating flies,/ That though they never equal stars in size,/ (And they were never really stars at heart)" From "Fireflies in the Garden" by Robert Frost

"In the summer/ I stretch out on the shore/ And think of you/ Had I told the sea/ What I felt for you,/ It would have left its shores" From "In the Summer" by Nizar Qabbani

"Like eagle that Sunday morning/ Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky/ In wind, swept our hearts clean/ With sacred wings.// We see you, see ourselves and know/ That we must take the utmost care/ And kindness in all things." From "Eagle Poem" by Joy Harjo