Dog Days Done

Today’s poem arrives right on cue at the close of the Dog Days of Summer. As of yesterday, August 11, those long, sultry days ended; today, August 12, begins the slow march toward autumn. Salena Godden’s “Dog Days Done” captures this turning point with sensual, lyrical detail—personifying summer’s departure and autumn’s arrival in a way that feels both personal and universal. Godden, a British poet and novelist of Jamaican-Irish heritage, writes from a place of inclusivity and celebration, embracing her own bisexual identity and the diverse experiences that shape her work. In this piece, she reminds us that every ending is also a beginning.

Dog Days Done

By Salena Godden

 

Summer lifts her skirt

revealing a glimmer of

 

amber, light and yellow.

Summer takes her time

 

to pack her belongings,

her weary butterflies

 

and thirsty bees.

And somewhere

 

in a distant field

August writes

 

goodbye letters

in gold on hay

 

and corn and

chestnut and you.

 

The morning after

the first thunderstorm

 

you’ll open the window

and smell it changed,

 

wafts of smoke,

and rain and past.

 

This ending

is a beginning.

 

Make hay

and make love,

 

gather bilberries

and blackberries.

 

Dog days done,

Sirius is south,

 

the last burst of roses,

apples and cider,

 

the Lughnasadh feast,

the tomato harvest,

 

the fruits so red and ripe

in September’s hands,

 

summer feeding

autumn’s mouth.

 

 

About the Poem

“Dog Days Done” is a rich meditation on the seasonal turning point between the sultry heat of late summer and the first breath of autumn—precisely the transition we enter today. Godden personifies summer as a graceful, almost theatrical figure—“Summer lifts her skirt / revealing a glimmer of amber”—infusing the natural shift with sensuality and warmth.

Throughout, the imagery pulses with the fatigue and richness of August: “weary butterflies” and “thirsty bees” suggest both the end of a long labor and the sweetness that remains. The image of August writing goodbye letters in gold merges the agricultural—hay, corn, chestnut—with the personal—“and you”—inviting the reader into the intimacy of the season’s farewell.

The poem pivots on the moment after the first thunderstorm, when you “smell it changed,” a sensory shift signaling not loss, but renewal: “This ending / is a beginning.” Godden’s call to “Make hay / and make love” bridges work and pleasure, grounding the cyclical rhythm of the seasons in human touch and connection.

Her reference to the Lughnasadh feast places the poem firmly within a deep cultural and historical tradition. Lughnasadh, a Celtic festival named for the god Lugh, marks the beginning of the harvest season, traditionally celebrated on August 1 with games, markets, feasting, and offerings of the first fruits. It honors both the labor of the growing season and the gratitude for its bounty. By invoking it here, Godden aligns the personal and the cosmic—her imagery becomes not just about the turning of the weather, but about humanity’s timeless connection to the land and the cycles that sustain us.

Her closing lines—“summer feeding / autumn’s mouth”—collapse the boundaries between past and future, underscoring how every ending carries the seeds of what follows. There is also, in the openness of her imagery, a quiet inclusivity: love, labor, and renewal belong to everyone, a reflection of Godden’s own embrace of diverse identities and experiences.

 

About the Poet

Salena Godden is a British poet, author, broadcaster, and performance artist of Jamaican-Irish heritage, widely regarded as one of the most dynamic voices in contemporary UK literature. Her work spans poetry, memoir, essays, and fiction, with collections such as Under the Pier (2011), Fishing in the Aftermath: Poems 1994–2014 (2014), Pessimism Is for Lightweights – 13 Pieces of Courage and Resistance (2018), and With Love, Grief and Fury (2024). Her debut novel, Mrs Death Misses Death (2021), won multiple awards and was shortlisted for others, cementing her place as a distinctive and daring storyteller.

Openly bisexual, Godden’s creative life has often been shaped by queer spaces and sensibilities. She has spoken of writing in “glorious gay bars” and embraces a worldview informed by inclusivity, fluid identity, and celebration of difference. These values infuse her work with a generosity of spirit and a refusal to confine human experience to narrow definitions.

Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Godden is also an acclaimed performer, known for her live readings that blend lyricism, humor, and political consciousness. Her poetry often carries both the intimacy of lived experience and the resonance of myth, connecting personal moments to universal cycles—much like the seasonal turn captured in “Dog Days Done.”