Summer in the Glen

Kam Tunningley, Celtic Glen

Spiritual Sunday

According to this deceptively simply ballad by Scott Bates, when we fall in love, often it is with a projection of ourselves.  There is an element of narcissism in our romantic passions.  But when we give ourselves over to the universe of which we are a part, then we escape the entrapment of self. If you want to get a sense of what he means, take an early morning walk in nature and revel in the sights and smells and sounds. The poem ends, like a child’s nursery rhyme, in a loop that moves beyond the division between the lover and the love object that he or she attempts to appropriate.

Glen Song

By Scott Bates

If all you love is who you love
And why and where and when
Then all you love is you you love
Like all the other men

But if the spring and fall you love
And summer in the glen
Then all you love is all you love
And all you love again.

The poem can be found in the Scott Bates’ collection Songs for the Queen of the Animals: A Book of Animal Poems (Sewanee, TN: Proctor’s Hall Press, 1992).  Artist Kam Tunningley’s website can be found at www.kam-tunningley.com/art.aspx.

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