An Answer to the Rain
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In bed you hear
The pounding of the
Rain on roof and four
Walls around you as the seas
Turn out upon themselves the air
Is humbled by the waters to depths
Of quietude wrapped around your breathing.
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And yet in all
Of this you gave no
Regard to the rain, but
Bravely wondered at the one
Drop that wound through roof and walls and
Curtains to break softly on your skin.
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When I clicked you
I was thinking of
Brodsky and the coffee-
Flavored halveh and the
Magi and the emptiness that
Anchors to that brightly beaming star.
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It is his breath
I feel across the veil
Of years, as you lie even
Now in a bed in a room
Across distance you are pressed by
Questions of space you wonder should you
Kneel or lie in meek submission to the rain.
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And so,
Now it is my turn to wonder,
If we read to somehow
Know we’re not alone
Where do we get the notion
To even write anything,
Let alone a puzzle,
If not to tame
The waters and draw out
From our lonely blue vessel
A single listening drop
From the vast
And silent ocean.
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-Lona Gynt August 2018.
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This is posted for dVerse Open Link Night. Here is the Link:
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This poem is a strange recipe brewed from combining an encounter with a wonderful post by Harry Miller called “Typhoon Day” with thinking about Josef Brodsky’s wonderful poem about the Nativity called “December 24, 1971.” I have links to Miller’s post and Brodsky’s poem below:
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All rights reserved by Lona Gynt, August 2018.
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The picture was taken by a visit I made to the Cica Ghost exhibit in Second Life called “Beginners.”
Dear Friend,
I’m really touched that you liked my old journal entry. No one has ever responded to one of my posts in this way before.
My head is spinning from binging on TV, but I’ll return to this tomorrow.
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Thank you. It was a beautiful piece of writing. Be well.
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Nice description: “the air
Is humbled by the waters to depths
Of quietude wrapped around your breathing”
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Thank you Frank, you always pick out a key image and sound from a poem.
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I really like the second stanza, the way this unfolds, and just wraps and drops itself so gently in the words, in the connections, the questions, the images it offers us to sit with. It is really a pivotal point in this piece. And then, we flow into this “conversation” – this rounding and swelling of ideas, thoughts, as if we’re rolling on the sea … and it’s intimate, and softly demanding, and of course, filled with the unanswerable, the mysteries.
this is very evocative … which makes it rather rich, and I really like how you’ve used the elements, rain and water, to wrap words around, and allow for the “voice” of the poem to question, and in some ways, answer but not answer … it’s a bit like a “blind faith” thing, that so often hits us in the long hours between night and day.
fascinating. 🙂
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I love the sounds of rain, gentle one, not the one pounding on the roof. It makes me reflect that we are just a single drop in the vast silent ocean. I specially like that personal snapshot of the second stanza. Have a good weekend.
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We are just one very special drop. I like the rain of all our dVerse crew falling into my inbox 🌧. Hope yours is wonderful also Grace. 💜
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Thank you for your rich and thoughtful enjoyment of this poem. I felt very lucky to have been stirred by two disparate writers in one evening centered in rain and stars and the connections we can have between us. I am glad there was an intimate feel in this. So glad you could sit with us in this poem a while. 🙂
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What an excellent poem. I love the third stanza.
“Where do we get the notion
To even write anything” … Indeed. Where do we?
Yes, of course. “From the vast
And silent ocean.”
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Thank you. I am glad you see that connection in the poem. I am sincerely grateful.
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Every drop carries within it the multitudes of lives and death, of strangeness and familiarity, as the rains make it all too clear and coherent in a wet world. That drop is perhaps the repository of all experience and thus an ample answer to the rain. There’s such a sense of wonderment and recognition of these colors left bare in your words.
Is it surrendering if we are doing it willingly, to gouge out this mystery, drawing out that single drop which is the end of the end and the beginning of the beginning?
I am intrigued by your images and ideas. While not all too concrete (the fluidity makes it powerful), it is resonant and heart-touching in a way.
-HA
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Yes, each one of us, each drop, is the answer to the overwhelming press of multitude, existing and condensing now, what then do we care about the March of entropy when we know there can be a connection of each corner of the universe briefly self-aware, this is the thing about beautiful worlds. Thank you for drawing out this one single Alabama drop. Your thoughts about my little drop of water has brought me considerable joy today. Thank you
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I enjoyed both your explanation of how this poem evolved and the poem itself, which washes over the reader like rain. I love the dizziness of the lines:
‘…as the seas
Turn out upon themselves the air
Is humbled by the waters to depths
Of quietude wrapped around your breathing’;
the captured moment of:
‘Bravely wondered at the one
Drop that wound through roof and walls and
Curtains to break softly on your skin’;
and the essence of:
‘Where do we get the notion
To even write anything,
Let alone a puzzle,
If not to tame
The waters and draw out
From our lonely blue vessel
A single listening drop
From the vast
And silent ocean’.
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Thank you Kim, dizziness, moment, essence. I am so glad this was appreciated.
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That’s our poetry, “one single listening drop” & reaching to help quench a friend … & there’s solace knowing how much water surrounds us. Well done …
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Thank you, connecting in flow with humans, it IS a solace. That is a wonderful recognition, thank you.
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This has a great rhythm and flow to it. Above all it has music.
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Thanks. That makes me have a big smile, I like tapping a toe to the rain now and again 🎵
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but
Bravely wondered at the one
Drop that wound through roof and walls and
Curtains to break softly on your skin.
Very true lines. The Rain seems to big to inevitable to perceive.
Beautiful. Thanks.
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Yes, thank you 😌
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