Rain Refrains – From Seasons Past

Hello world. It’s a new year – and I’m praying for a deluge to wash the slate clean and fill desperately dry dams. We had 60mm to close-out 2020, which refreshed soul and soil and put a green tint across the land. But numerous dams were bone dry, and our big dam is at a 50+ year record low, so we need a sustained bucketing to impact on their water level.

In years past, January has been a Month of Poetry (and I’m currently wondering how I missed that this year…🤷‍♀️) so for today’s post, I have been scouring my previous MoP collections looking for a build-up of rain refrains. Prepare to be inundated.🌦

All poems are copyright Kathryn Apel, all rights reserved.

——

six-legged scavengers stream
across kitchen benches
flowing to the food

——

croaky croak
of frog with frog
in throat

——

moon shines through clouds
still waters whisper
rain dance

——

Clouds

like an octopus
clouds salty depths,
inky puffs swirl across
a sea of stars
swallowing the moon and
shrouding the shadowy landscape
in a pool of
black

——

Storm Clouds on the Horizon

The neighbours upstairs are throwing
the furniture around,
stomping and tromping
voices rumbling in agitation,
shattering the stifling stillness
of a summer afternoon.
Sparks fly
as they thunder and roar,
shaking the building
with their tempest.

——

rain
tiptoes,
whispers hush;
chirruping frog
gargles droplets as
clouds razzle troops to fall
faster, heavier, louder
until gargling frog
is swallowed in a
crescendo of
pummelling
rain, rain
rain

——

——

mizzling drizzling scene
as nature washes clean;
shower

——

a landscape
in watercolours;
reflection

——

rain trains
streaming past
plane windows

——

if I had time
I could watch
the grass grow

——

still water
trees cast off leaves
and skinny dip

——

⛈ Bring it on! 🌧I’m keen to see our dam like this again (overflowing with abundant birdlife!) – and to celebrate ‘Up and Down on a Rainy Day’ in appropriate style! (Though I am smiling at this lovely review on Reading Time.)

Sylvia is hosting Poetry Friday this week at Poetry for Children. I find myself wondering what poems children will be seeking after the events of this week. Poems of hope? Dark poems that reflect their fears? Poems prompting laughter? Gems of kindness and empathy? Poems of healing? Perhaps they will write their voice for generations and seasons to come.

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27 comments

  4. Dodging raindrops. I like, Molly! And I’d love to share your wet weather, Kay. What a creative way to make rain, Margaret. 🙂

    For more than 20 years my husband assured me the big dam would never dry. (Certainly has never even come close – prior to last year.) But over the last 18 months, even hubby has started pondering what we’ll do when the big dam runs out… 10km either side of the home block there has been falls of good rain. So it’s not all as dry as home. Hubby even got spectacularly bogged just this week. (When at the house, we’d barely registered 2mm.) It’s a fickle-fall.

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  6. What a celebration! A new book with a great review and rain, rain, rain poetry! I’ll wish for a good bucketing for you, too. We have rain here that I’d love to share. But, with cold temps near freezing so that we are all layered up in shirts and sweaters and jackets, socks and gloves. Your octopus poem is wonderful. I can feel the water pressure around me as I read it and watch that inky ink spread out until it covers all, black. So good to “see” you on the blog today. Rain dancing for you!

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    • I can imagine that rainy day play won’t be high on your agenda in those environs, Linda. But for sure, send some our way! And thank-you for bringing your special brand of joy to my blog. You are always welcome!

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  7. We in Colorado share your pain, Kat. Even in this winter we’ve had less snow (or rain). Some days I wonder if I should drag out the hose to water. I enjoyed every poem, images to take for us, too, and especially wishing for those “neighbors upstairs”. Wishing you a deluge of happy raindrops soon!

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    • Oh, I know you do, Linda. It seriously helps to know that, when despair overwhelms. I hope you find comfort in it, too.💙 It is drizzling here as I type. Which is good for the grass. But needs to get serious if that dam is going to be anything other than a lush lawn. Praying you get good rain/snow, too.

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  9. Writing from California and hoping your rain can call out ours. I especially loved the “six-legged scavengers” because they’re at my house, too – and the “mizzling” drizzle. I love the varied ways we talk about rain and wet weater.

    Fingers crossed that it comes!

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    • I wondered if ants was just an Australian phenomena – but I suspected that they might be universal. Seeking higher ground. One year, preceding what was a big flood, I had a snake climbing the walls (the brickwork) outside. I think animals have a sense for these things, and seek higher ground.

      Hoping you’re singing in the rain, soon!

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  11. Here’s hoping your rain poems are as effective as a rain dance. I’m partial to the skinny dipping one myself! 🙂 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com

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  12. Kat, good luck with your draught. You’ve had such extreme weather in your part of the world. I enjoyed your poem. My favorite was Storm Clouds on the Horizon and the sparks flying from the upstairs neighbors. What is their story, I wondered?

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    • Australia can be an extreme place to live. Funny thing is, I am sure our first 7 years of marriage were dryer than this – and certainly the grass took much longer to recover. But the difference with this year is that the water table is lower. Hence the dry dams and bores.. We are just now flourishing into a green drought. (Which does offer a respite for the eyes. And the cattle. In the immediate future.)

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Comments from readers are purrrrfect!