Rain down on me.....

So, indeed, here I find myself standing at the screen door during violent storms almost as if called to be part of this great cleansing of the Earth.  For that is what it feels like.  Like everything is being scrubbed clean. There are also those times when the Earth is parched and the waters slake its thirst.

Rain carries with it that soul cleansing and nourishing quality, yet there are times when it almost acts like a scourge upon the earth, as with the recent tsunami in Japan and the numerous floods around the globe. 

Heavy Summer Rain

~~Jane Kenyon 

The grasses in the field have toppled,

and in places it seems that a large, now

absent, animal must have passed the night.

The hay will right itself if the day

turns dry. I miss you steadily, painfully.

None of your blustering entrances

or exits, doors swinging wildly

on their hinges, or your huge unconscious

sighs when you read something sad,

like Henry Adam’s letters from Japan,

where he traveled after Clover died.

Everything blooming bows down in the rain:

white irises, red peonies; and the poppies

with their black and secret centers

lie shattered on the lawn.

These lyrics from Mumford and Sons weave nicely into tonight's cloth.

Thistle & Weeds
~~Mumford & Sons
Spare me your judgments and spare me your dreams
Cause recently mine have been tearing my seams
I sit alone in this winter clarity which clouds my mind
Alone in the wind and the rain you left me
It's getting dark darling, too dark to see
And I'm on my knees, and your faith in shreds, it seems

Corrupted by the simple sniff of riches blown
I know you have felt much more love than you've shown
And I'm on my knees and the water creeps to my chest

But plant your hope with good seeds
Don't cover yourself with thistle and weeds
Rain down, rain down on me
Look over your hills and be still
The sky above us shoots to kill
Rain down, rain down on me

But I will hold on
I will hold on hope

  

   And my own attempt at capturing a quality of rain....

   
  Garden Friends
  ~~jkreed

When first this began

With its spring-like energy

delicate tendrils new and fragile

looked for sustenance and nurturing

the sun’s energy

pulled them in

but like a drought-filled summer

the intensity of the sun

began to cause harm where once it nurtured

their growth was skewed

dependent upon only one source

those once tender shoots now in the height of growth

wilt and shrivel

burned by the sun’s intensity

beaten down by the thing that once fed and sustained them

but hope persists

and they lie waiting for the rains

that will slake their thirst

and revive their souls

remind them of why they had been on this journey in the first place

the rains come

and they drink of it

but no longer with the wild abandon they once did

these first attempts are furtive and uncertain

the scars from their first attempt still livid and apparent

so they rise up from the earth,  buoyed by hope and the certainty that

they had come too far to let it all go

now they grow again

more carefully

more gently

less certain

they are perennials these two

each spring ready to put out tender green shoots

but always at the root

where it matters most

there is

them

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.   
             ~George Washington