I would like to introduce the newest addition to my notebook. She is called Emily and has informed me that she likes kingfishers, scones, Ribena and the sound of rain on canvas tents. However Emily has also told me that she has a strong dislike for buttons, but not chocolate buttons, she likes those ones. Emily has been popping in and out of the pages of my notebook and occasionally sits on my desk as I write, with Hopper, her rabbit who loyally follows her wherever she goes.

Exultation! Salutation
to the long midsummer days,
to the light lost by the minute,
sing, and sing the dark away.

In the park the lover's listen,
blackbird's last song of the day.
Bats are scribbling verse on twilight.
Owls are calling, Kyrie.

Soon a gathering of swallows,
like a stanza on a wire,
voices rising in crescendo,
in hall and stadium and choir.

In the theatre of summer,
stars ascending in their arc,
company and conversation.
Sing,and sing away the dark!