Rain!

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Diane

Rain!

Post by Diane »

Here in South Wales it has been raining, and raining, and raining, day and night, for weeks. It's made me want to read poems about rain. If anyone knows good rain poems, please post.

A dark one:

Rain
Edward Thomas


Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying to-night or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.
lonndubh
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Location: Ireland

Re: Rain!

Post by lonndubh »

Morning Diane
Not much different here in Ireland
When we were chatting about the weather pre Leonard's Dublin concert -rain was mentioned too :?
Someone said something about Rain And Purification :D :D :D
Well I think that all must be Nearly Pure by now :!: :!: :!:

Georgia Rain: from Duke Adkins and Merlin Gormann

A stolen kiss is all you gave
while lips wet with August rain
must hold until September.
No! do not say December...
A black Lab, Horatio true,
declares none but his
do exist upon my lips.
Why then, do I taste only you?

by William Beaird
Diane

Re: Rain!

Post by Diane »

Hi Lonndubh, nice to see you! You are correct, we must all be pure by now :shock: . The endlessness of it was starting to trickle into the inside of my skull. It has temporarily stopped here now. I hope your island doesn't start flooding, as soon we will need somewhere to bail out to. Ah, the rain at the LC concert was great (even better for those of us wearing highly fashionable black bin bags).

Lodged
Robert Frost

The rain to the wind said,
'You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged--though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.
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david birkett
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Re: Rain!

Post by david birkett »

Watch Your Step - I'm Drenched

In Manchester there are a thousand puddles.
Bus-queue puddles poised on slanting paving stones,
Railway puddles slouching outside stations,
Cinema puddles in ambush at the exits,
Zebra-crossing puddles in dips of the dark stripes --
They lurk in the murk
Of the north-western evening
For the sake of their notorious joke,
Their only joke -- to soak
The tights or trousers of the citizens.
Each splash and consequent curse is echoed by
One thousand dark Mancunian puddle chuckles.

In Manchester there lives the King of Puddles,
Master of Miniature Muck Lakes,
The Shah of Slosh, Splendifero of Splash,
Prince, Pasha and Pope of Puddledom.
Where? Somewhere. The rain-headed ruler
Lies doggo, incognito,
Disguised as an average, accidental mini-pool.
He is as scared as any other emperor,
For one night, all his soiled and soggy victims
Might storm his streets, assassination in their minds,
A thousand rolls of blotting paper in their hands,
And drink his shadowed, one-joke life away.

-- Adrian Mitchell
The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.
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david birkett
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Re: Rain!

Post by david birkett »

...and not forgetting, by the much overlooked Louis MacNeice:


London Rain
by Louis MacNeice

The rain of London pimples
The ebony street with white
And the neon lamps of London
Stain the canals of night
And the park becomes a jungle
In the alchemy of night.

My wishes turn to violent
Horses black as coal–
The randy mares of fancy,
The stallions of the soul–
Eager to take the fences
That fence about my soul.

Across the countless chimneys
The horses ride and across
The country to the channel
Where warning beacons toss,
To a place where God and No-God
Play at pitch and toss.

Whichever wins I am happy
For God will give me bliss
But No-God will absolve me
From all I do amiss
And I need not suffer conscience
If the world was made amiss.

Under God we can reckon
On pardon when we fall
But if we are under no God
Nothing will matter at all,
Arson and rape and murder
Must count for nothing at all.

So reinforced by logic
As having nothing to lose
My lust goes riding on horseback
To ravish where I choose,
To burgle all the turrets
Of beauty as I choose.

But now the rain gives over
Its dance upon the town,
Logic and lust together
Come dimly tumbling down,
And neither God nor No-God
Is either up or down.

The argument was wilful,
The alternatives untrue,
We need no metaphysics
To sanction what we do
Or to muffle us in comfort
From what we did not do.

Whether the living river
Began in bog or lake,
The world is what was given,
The world is what we make
And only we can discover
Life in the life we make.

So let the water sizzle
Upon the gleaming slates,
There will be sunshine after
When the rain abates
And rain returning duly
When the sun abates.

My wishes now come homeward,
Their gallopings in vain,
Logic and lust are quiet,
Once more it starts to rain.
Falling asleep I listen
To the falling London rain.
The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.
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~greg
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Re: Rain!

Post by ~greg »

I think it's going to rain today - Randy Newman

Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness, overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen smiles to chase love away
Human kindness, it's overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
Think I'll kick it down the street
That's the way to treat a friend

Bright before me the signs implore me
Help the needy, show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today
Virginia
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Re: Rain!

Post by Virginia »

Diane
I hope this fits the bill too:


Our little Kinsmen -- after Rain by Emily Dickinson

Our little Kinsmen -- after Rain
In plenty may be seen,
A Pink and Pulpy multitude
The tepid Ground upon.

A needless life, it seemed to me
Until a little Bird
As to a Hospitality
Advanced and breakfasted.

As I of He, so God of Me
I pondered, may have judged,
And left the little Angle Worm
With Modesties enlarged.

Or this -

Gee, You're So Beautiful That It's Starting To Rain by Richard Brautigan

Oh, Marcia,
I want your long blonde beauty
to be taught in high school,
so kids will learn that God
lives like music in the skin
and sounds like a sunshine harpsicord.
I want high school report cards
to look like this:

Playing with Gentle Glass Things
A

Computer Magic
A

Writing Letters to Those You Love
A

Finding out about Fish
A

Marcia's Long Blonde Beauty
A+!
Diane

Re: Rain!

Post by Diane »

Thanks muchly for obliging, people. And welcome to the forum, Virginia.

The Rainy Day
Rabindranath Tagore


Sullen clouds are gathering fast over the black fringe of the
forest.
O child, do not go out!
The palm trees in a row by the lake are smiting their heads
against the dismal sky; the crows with their dragged wings are
silent on the tamarind branches, and the eastern bank of the river
is haunted by a deepening gloom.
Our cow is lowing loud, tied at the fence.
O child, wait here till I bring her into the stall.
Men have crowded into the flooded field to catch the fishes
as they escape from the overflowing ponds; the rain-water is
running in rills through the narrow lanes like a laughing boy who
has run away from his mother to tease her.
Listen, someone is shouting for the boatman at the ford.
O child, the daylight is dim, and the crossing at the ferry
is closed.
The sky seems to ride fast upon the madly rushing rain; the
water in the river is loud and impatient; women have hastened home
early from the Ganges with their filled pitchers.
The evening lamps must be made ready.
O child, do not go out!
The road to the market is desolate, the lane to the river is
slippery. The wind is roaring and struggling among the bamboo
branches like a wild beast tangled in a net.
Last edited by Diane on Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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david birkett
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Re: Rain!

Post by david birkett »

Can we publish an anthology?
The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.
Virginia
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Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:09 pm

Re: Rain!

Post by Virginia »

It could be called Damp Squib.
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david birkett
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Re: Rain!

Post by david birkett »

...with a foreword by Craig Raine.
The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.
lonndubh
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Location: Ireland

Re: Rain!

Post by lonndubh »

Can we please include my very favourite rain poem

ONE WET SUMMER BY PATRICK KAVANAGH

Another summer,another July
People going on holiday ,women in light dresses
how I once jealously feared for them under the printed cotton
Limp unresisting to any man's caresses.
I would have one of my own
And then like other men I would make cynical remarks
At the dangers they ran and never be worried about summer
And what happens in the shelter of parks.
As it is I praised the rain
For washing out the Bank holiday with its moral risks
It is not a nice attitude but it is conditioned by circumstances
and by a childhood perverted by Christian moralists
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mat james
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Location: Australia

Re: Rain!

Post by mat james »

On the Cliff
( Anzac Day 1988 )

Under grey-blanket sky
Long legs of rain
Marched round the Cape.
Like children, we stared into
A moment’s marking time.

They were gone:
Greatcoats trailing
Across long-trenched sea.
We had no time
To choke or to cheer.

P.R.Eason
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.
jillian0108
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Re: Rain!

Post by jillian0108 »

Feels Like Rain

Down here the river meets the sea
And in the sticky heat I feel ya' open up to me
Love comes out of nowhere baby, like a hurricane
And it feels like rain

Underneath the stars lying next to you
Wondering who you are baby
How do you do?
When the clouds blow in across the moon
And the wind howls out your name
Feels like rain

Batten down the hatches
But keep your heart out of your sleeve
A little bit of stormy weather, that's no cause for us to leave
Just stay here baby, in my arms
Let is wash away the pain
Feels like rain.

John Hiatt
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Sophia
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Location: Athens - Greece

Re: Rain!

Post by Sophia »

Helen (Odysseus Elytis)

With the first drop of rain summer was killed
The words that gave birth to starlight got drenched
All the words whose unique destination was You!
Whither shall we stretch our hands now time no more considers
us
Whither shall we rest our eyes now the distant lines have
foundered in the clouds
Now your eyelids have closed on our landscapes
And we — as if the fog entered us―are
Alone all alone surrounded by your dead images.

Forehead to the windowpane we keep sleepless watch over new
grief
It is not death shall cast us down since You exist
Since elsewhere a wind exists wholly to live you
To dress you from close by as our hope dresses you from afar
Since elsewhere greenest prairies exist
Beyond your laughter as far as the sun
Telling it in confidence that we shall meet again
No it is not death we shall confront
But just a tiny drop of autumn rain
A turbid emotion
The smell of damp earth within our souls that continually grow
more distant

And if your hand is not in our hand
And if our blood is not in your dreams’veins
Nor light in the spotless sky
And invisible the music inside us O melancholy
Wayfaress of what still holds us to the earth!
It is the wet wind the autumnal hour the separation
The elbow’s bitter leaning in memory
That comes out when night would part us from light
Behind the square window that looks out on sorrow
That sees nothing

Because it has already become invisible music a flame in the
fireplace a chime of the great clock on the wall
Because it has already become
A poem a verse then another verse a hum parallel to rain tears and
words
Words not like others but even these with their unique
destination:You!

(Translated by Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris)


Sophia
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