[Poetry bloggers can find the weekly reads superbly rounded up by Buffy Silverman.]
Our family of the North hopes for 80 degree days &
cools off with 50 degree nites.
But here in Florida we blister now until, October to early November.
A dear pal transplanted to Florida is not only under the sun, but also, gloriously pregnant. So for encouragement I scratched the memory of my own summer pregnancy days and thought of cool ways.
AVOIDS
Teach family/friends to avoid speaking these words or their various iterations near you –
baking
blistering
boiling
broil
flame
fire
fricassee
heat
hot
humid
roasting
sizzle
solar
steam
suffocating
sun
tar
toasting
Forget that you like spicy food
DO
Pop into your mouth –
washed individual grapes, spaced apart on a tray, covered, from freezer
same with frozen melon balls, any color; blueberries; ice slivers
A cold salad meal every day or several times in one day isn’t overdoing it
Baked/broiled/cooked foods can taste fantastic cold – steak in salad, for example, shrimp in salad, chicken in…
Move perfume/cologne stick to the fridge for impulsive wrist & ankle rubs
Keep a soft washcloth & small towel in a plastic bag in the fridge
Walk barefoot or watershoe-footed in water – the sea shore, lake shore, splash fountain, creek, pool
Walk on cool grass & in the shade of grandmother trees
Seek the outdoors in early a.m. & in the p.m.
Adore full moonlight & accomplish outdoors work during it
Adore the evening
Embrace linen without a worry about wrinkles – every breeze passes right through it
Before entering a parked vehicle, it should be prepared – windows down, A/C running a blast, dashboard fan on & towel on seat so you don’t stick
Sidewalks, pathways & roads are for walking in the evening
Keep 2 kiddie pools in the backyard – one for little ones & one for
you
Find books that bring you into the cool – GOING TO EXTREMES, COMING INTO THE COUNTRY…
Floating on your back in an expanse of cool should be the cardinal rule
Floating
by Jan Godown Annino
Eyes closed
Face up
Water buoys beyond sun shafts
A womb of wet
Where have I gone?
Afloat in an ocean
Drifting in a pond
Lazing on a lake
Am I also somewhere else?
Free of Fahrenheits
Feeling more like me
I am the queen of cool
copyrightJanGodownAnnino
And what about hats you may say.
Patience to read this far is rewarded with the best.
Thinking of sun hats I felt an old memory linking hats to E.B. White.
Sure enough when I pulled a collection down from the shelf, I found a marker for a summer poem.
These lines excerpted are from “A Father Does His Best,”
connecting summer sizzle, E.B. White & hats.
When this stanza begins, the narrator is at Lord & Taylor & later will visit other emporiums.
“A Father Does His Best”
by E. B. White
Said I to Lord & Taylor:
“Hot are the summer skies
And my son Joe would like to go
In a big straw hat in the year-old size
Have you got such a thing for, for summer skies,
A nice straw hat in the year-old size?
Said Lord & Taylor: “No.”
copyright E.B. White, all rights reserved
excerpted from p. 73, “A Father Does His Best”
in POEMS & SKETCHES of E. B. White
Bookseedstudio 
29 responses to “Sizzle”
We live in Seattle precisely because I could never figure out how to stay cool in California – I sure could have used these tips! Think I will print them up and use them later (August?) for the few days it gets uncomfortably hot here (when you’re not acclimated to the heat, you can be sweltering at 85 degrees.) Thanks, Jan – and thanks, too, for your lovely poem about floating. And for the E.B. White – I have to get that one down off my shelf again and re-read.
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Glad for this bookshelf connection, Julie & appreciations for visiting.
Weekend joy to you.
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I love “Free of Fahrenheits
Feeling more like me”
Mesmerizing poem!
I was born in raised in Florida, and I hate hot weather. Have been happily living in MN for almost 25 years:>) (Though the summers are still too hot here)
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Chillin’ in the best way with these kind thoughts, Laura – appreciations.
Sorry FLA lost you to MN. I loved my cool visit to St. Paul – Minneapolis, yrs. back.
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My heat-hating husband always saves books about winter and the Arctic to read in August!
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That’s a clever new one – give that man a high five! (Or another iced book.)
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Those are all excellent methods of cooling. I had one child in October, and that summer was blistering, even up here. It was in the 90s into October. I have a kiddie pool for me, too, even now. A small one of the deck that I fill up with cold hose water in the morning, and I just stand in it while I watch the kids play. And I have a little handheld squirty bottle with a fan attached, and it’s the best!! I love EB White’s poem. So adorable.
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So cute an image- Brava!
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Anything to avoid being hot and irritable with the kids. Zen mommy. 🙂
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I can already feel your calm, cool & collected creativity.
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Great alliteration! What a word smith you are, even in commenting. Thank you!
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Your list works well for anyone, pregnant or not, living in Louisiana in the summer. My favorite is watermelon. I buy it already cut and each chunks when I’m hot. Iced mint tea with lemon is a must, too. My youngest was born in September. Luckily my mother in law has a pool so we spent the summer there.
I love your manatee picture. They are such peaceful creatures, like sloths of the sea.
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E.B. White wrote a book of poems? Must check that out. Thanks for the cool float and the hot list of words.
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Perfect eyedears Margaaret.
And “slots of the sea” is a memorable image.
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Appreciations for your floating by, Buffy.
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I enjoyed your poem Floating and always like E B White. Thanks for the great photos. At least in Tucson we have dry heat and everything is air conditioned.
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Remebering that Tucson dry heat from childhood. It’s a different way of feeling old sol.
Appreciations, Joy.
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I’ll have to keep all those great tips in mind when things get hot and steamy around here. Love those cool images in your poem, floating on water . . .
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Appreciations, Jama.
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Love this image: “Walk on cool grass & in the shade of grandmother trees.” These recommendations for cool form their own poem! And I love the play with opposites in White’s line “In a big straw hat in the year-old size.”
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Appreciations, Joyce.
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I can SO relate to this post, Jan! While we didn’t move to Florida until fairly recently, my son was born in the NM summer, and my daughter in the summer down under! Love “Floating”– especially that last stanza… “Free of Fahrenheits” and “the queen of cool.” 🙂
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You are an entirely different queen of cool with your Today’s Little Ditties web pages/site, Michelle.
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Ah, the taste of summer heat warms my heart while I still wear layers and long pants here on Long Island. Jan, I hope you take me up on my Spring’s Symphony writing challenge. Would love one of your poems. See today’s invitation included in my Poetry Friday post: http://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com/2015/06/envisioning-springs-symphony.html. I hope you join in.
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This week summer has been announced, and my air conditioning is running, but I like the ‘cool’ ideas you shared, that linen-allowing breezes and frozen melon balls are just right. The poem by E.B. White is wonderful, will look for it in some of my anthologies. Thanks, Jan.
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Glad you are simpatico with that E.B. White hat poem.
And hope the cooling tricks don’t have to be used too often this glorious summer.
We are traveling & when untraveled, I’m eager to visit your PF article & see so many others, too.
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[…] Jan Annino shares lines of a summer hat poem from E.B. White, an original summer poem, and a list of cool tips for a pregnant pal in humid hot, heated Florida. […]
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Dear Queen of Cool: Float On!
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If you are floating then it’s guaranteed I will, Joan!
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