The idea of summer may conjure a salty ocean breeze, the feel of hot pavement on bare feet, or, in my case, the siren call of a Mister Softee ice cream truck. Whatever sights, sounds, smells, and tastes the season evokes for you, we hope you will find something familiar in the summer-inspired poems featured below. Be sure to let us know your favorite on Twitter @NEAarts!

"Into the rooms flow meadow airs,/ The warm farm baking smell’s blown round./ Inside and out, and sky and ground/ Are much the same..."

"Country Summer" by Léonie Adams

"Sometimes/ in the park/ in the near dark// one comes out/ you'll hear/ a little kid shout// Lightning bug! Firefly!"

"Firefly" by Jacqueline Woodson

"A sudden guffaw; some giggles; a woman’s—no, a/ young girl’s—sarcastic reply; someone’s assertion; a/ high-pitched male cackle."

"Nostalgia (The Lake at Night)" by Lloyd Schwartz 

"Uncles tipple wine on the streets of Mott and Bayard./ Night shifts meet day shifts in passing.// Sweat seasons the body that labors.// And in each noodle shop, bowls dusted with salt."

"Chinatown Diptych" by Jenny Xie

"Late August, given heavy rain and sun/ For a full week, the blackberries would ripen./ At first, just one, a glossy purple clot/ Among others, red, green, hard as a knot."

"Blackberry-Picking" by Seamus Heaney

"Adrift in the liberating, late light/ of August, delicate, frivolous,/ they make their way to my front porch/ and flutter near the glassed-in bulb..."

"Moths" by Jennifer O'Grady

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?/ Thou art more lovely and more temperate:/ Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,/ And summer’s lease hath all too short a date"

"Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare

"There is a time, seconds between/ the last light and the dark stretch ahead, when color/ is lost — the girl on her swing becomes a swift/ apparition, black and white flowing suddenly into night."

"The World in the Evening" by Rachel Sherwood