SUMMER, THE SACRAMENTO

To this bridge the pale river and flickers away in images of blue.
And is gone. While behind me the stone mountains
stand brown with blue lights; at my right shoulder standing
Shasta, in summer standing, blue with her white lights
near a twilight summer moon, whiter than snow
where the light of evening changes among these legends.

Under me islands lie green, planted with green feathers,
green growing, shadowy grown, gathering streams of the green trees.
A hundred streams full of shadows and your upland source
pulled past sun-islands, green in this light as grace,
risen from your sun-mountains where your voices go
returning to water and music is your face.

Flows to the flower-haunted sea, naming and singing, under my eyes
coursing, the day of the world. And the time of my spirit streams
before me, slow autumn colors, the cars of a long train;
earth-red, earth-orange, leaf, rust, twilight of earth
stream past the evening river and over into the dark of north,
stream slow like wishes continuing toward those snows.

-Muriel Rukeyser

Berklee’s poetry trail was laid in October 2003 along Edison Street between Shattuck and Milvia Streets. The route includes 128 metal plates with excerpts from songs, each of which is related in one way or another to the city of Berkeley.

The plaque features a poem by the American feminist poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980). The title of the song is taken from her collection of songs "The Green Wave" (1948), "Summer, Sacramento" and it may be the connection to California (Sacramento is the capital of California).

A section of another poem by the same poet is on the Library Walk in New York Click for sign's details