Writer Lucille Lang Day was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her most recent book is The Curvature of Blue, a poetry collection published by Červená Barva Press in 2009. Her previous books include seven poetry collections and chapbooks, a children’s book, and a co-authored textbook, How to Encourage Girls in Math and Science. She has also published fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, book reviews, song lyrics, science journalism, feature articles, and research papers. Her work has appeared widely in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies.

More about Lucille Lang Day

Aubade In Red

First rays of light
falling on pointed red petals
and pinnate leaves
of the desert trumpet;

the glow that reveals
slim blooms of the scarlet bugler,
the breast of the scarlet tanager,
the cap of the red-headed woodpecker,
the calliope hummingbird’s throat;

radiance announcing
the vine maple’s purple-red
polygamous flowers,
growing in clusters,
its smooth, red-brown bark
and paired red seeds.

Each morning let us applaud
the brightness that unfolds
to show the abundance
of all things red:
red bays and red oaks,
red coral, red clover,
red-shafted flickers
and even red pandas,
even red ants.

— Lucille Lang Day


From The Curvature of Blue, first
published in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment

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