Raining

by Don Reynolds

raining. that gentle, great sustaining
—nature handwaving in the saving—
drop, by drop, by drop.

rain comes like the pensive paws of a creeping cat.
this quiet rain came down
—pitter pat, pitter pat—
came down and slow today
to drown and soak the soil’s fray,
to lay in long, narrow puddles
to cuddle on my dampened deck.

rain comes as tears
from gray clouds
to break down the clods of dry earth
where moss-covered marl meets
dampened mirth.

rain comes as joy.
a liberation in the turf’s domain:
like open hands the muddy terrain will
hold, heal, and maintain
what once was carried
by winged seed in tiny copters
or dandelion’s cottony down
on wind
or on wild thing;
seed-nourished bird that sings and cries,
seeds clinging to critters
who try to hide,
and then fit,
bee that stings and later dies
having fed flowers before the threat
of why she then bit.

down falls the oak catkin
in exodus from her twiggy cabin.
rain will bend her tender back
along with her feathery kin.

the rain came down;
down as a chime of wrens,
down as a host of sparrows,
down as a gift of robins,
down as a flight of swallows
migrating in the heavens.

still the rain falls.
just as all of life thrives in her washing
in a great baptism of grand provision;
the cleansing hours,
the clearing powers of falling showers,
drop, by drop, by drop.

drop, with drop, with drop,
as torrents teem through tributaries,
—from wonder to… thunder—
her sand and sloshing
carry away the grand glut
of muck and sorrow’s worries.
alluvion widening, bending the course
to mist and twist into rapid torrent
to fill the gorge where water falls,
rounding boulders by the force
of gathering creeks, rivulets, and streams,
of drops and deluge from the source.

then.. when the ground is dry and bound again,
and sun is warm and bright again,
and crisp is the seductive scent of faithful terra firma;
bid the grass and soil with farmer’s toil
to build a sacred convent.
convincing all people
the rinsing is equal;
as wisdom assists a rise from medieval
factions and other smothering distractions
that we will all be wiser
for the wrenching
and the drenching
while the full rain

and cloudmost drains

cascade.