Nothing says summer solstice like a weather forecast nearing 90 degrees. But we'll take what we can get, even if it means lugging around two liters of chilled seltzer and staking out our spots near the office air conditioners. After all, today is the longest day of the year and summer's official start.  At 7:09 PM (EDT), when the sun will shine directly at the Tropic of Cancer and reach farthest north of the equator, we're launching full throttle into summer (as if we haven't already).  In honor of those extra moments of daylight (more natural light for reading!), we've compiled our favorite summer poems. And because we like to consider ourselves poets, we're kicking things off with our very own ode to summer 2012, using Emily Brontë's 'Moonlight, summer moonlight' as inspiration.

[Counting down the minutes until summer starts! Photo via]