Oh gift of rain
Cup of life
From the sky to our lips
Trees drink deep
Searching routes roots shoot to savour
Damp drips in the mossy mushroom festooned
draping of forest old and full
Oh gift of rain
cup of life
fall from above
bestow life
On roofs and roads
Leaves and legs
Washing, wending, descending
by gravity's constant call
To return to return again
Evapostranspiration calls you up
Precipitation so very precipitous
can bring you down..
Run off now to the sea
Rejoin your vast family
Wherein therein dwell we and she
and he and me.
Conveniently covalently bonded
attract repel chargedly
Universal solvent
Essential
Vital
Necessary
I need you.
Where did you come from?
The sea? Look further
The sky? further still...
Water born of stars' birth
born as outward wind
collides and compresses
heats and emerges transformed.
Such is the reality of water
to nurture and destroy
to bear life and bring death
anew and again and again and again
The means of life
and the greatest active destroyer of it
The nurturing trickle
and the ravenous torrent.
The delicate symmetry of snowflakes
alighting so softly on skin
and the hailstones that hurtle
down to dent cars and skulls.
All life needs water
Where there is life there is water
Where there was life there was water.
People fear and respect fire
which is extinguished by water
The fire quenched while the water evaporates
to condense and fall again.
Neptune, Poseidon, Naiads and Nymphs
Baptism, Purification, Oasis, Paradise.
Water honored and revered
by those that came before.
Those that understood.
Be careful, you who disparage.
Take heed, those who disdain
the rain is life and death.
It is tinkling and crashing on tin
musically falling in still ponds to ripple
Thunderingly carving through rock of ages
Cocky we who hold the hose and claim dominance
Growth and destruction
Respect the rain
Welcome the waves
Be thankful and do not fear
For as much as it is us
more so are we not it?
We follow in the example of water
We nurture and destroy
we foster and create
What we do to the water
We do to ourselves.
4 comments:
This is a thrilling flood of ideas! I think it embodies exactly what you're describing: welcoming the waves... looking further, and further still...
To me the line "I need you." feels like the emotional center of your poem. I like how you have three single-word lines leading up to it and then a stanza break after it, giving it extra weight. And it speaks of an ocean of personal feelings beyond the universal truths of water you so awesomely write about.
Great job and thank you for posting! Also I like how it makes me appreciate your blog background that much more :)
Awesome composition, my friend.
A wonderfully composed ode to the all to often overlooked element of life and moss and greenery.
Also, mega bonus points for using evapostranspiration and covalent a poetic verse!
Nathan - Thank you so very much for your feedback and encouragement! :D I haven't written very much and have posted even less so I'm trying to chip away at my hesitation and fears a bit at a time ;) :D Your support means a lot to me! :D
Karsten - Thank you. Definitely written as a response to the common sentiment of rain complainers who abound around these towns ;) And yes I was very amused when I dropped those words in... much as I was when inspired to put both "viking norse" and "mnemonic assaults" in that song of mine. :)
Beautifully written. Seems like you had water on the brain. ;)
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