As a poet, I’m not used to writing a body of poems on deadline although there have been plenty of times I’m pushing and praying through a poem for a special occasion. Because poetry is so hard to get published, usually, I have years (decades even) to linger over a book, but for this one, that goes to the publisher, Ice Cube Press, within a week, I had to throw myself into the mercy of the page.
Sometimes the right line, image or rhythm would come, and often, it wouldn’t. I tended to play with the not-quite-right poems by trying them out with very short, then very long lines, each time, tweaking the language, and hoping some fresh new image landed in my lap. And that’s kind of the essence of poetry: you show up on the page, surrender all, work like crazy, pay attention while not paying attention, and hope the gods give you something to say.
Such was the case with this poem, which went through many versions, and which I began again to write a dozen times. Part of the challenge was what to say about storms and life that I hadn’t said in any of the other 69 poems. Now that I found something that feels good to me, I let it go, carry the manuscript to a wonderful writer who will proofread the poems for me, and then send it to my publisher. While I’m done chasing poetry (for a short while), we’re not done chasing dollars to fund the high quality printing of this book, so if the work connects with you, and you’d like to buy your copy in advance, and support a small press, please see our indiegogo campaign here. Meanwhile, in honor of being finished, and of this blustery, rainy day, here is “Rain.”
Rain
The wall of noise dissolves to rain,
a world held in place by a million falling threads.
In the balance, the fur on the coyote’s belly,
worn as leather but marked with a lifetime of fights,
and the lake hungry for new stories to swim with the old.
Lightning angles and wishbones, branches into branches
that mimic what grows or tunnels below.
Scenery unrolls quick-silver — expanses of land
or water, sky and darkness — in the flash that lights up
all the lines of roads and clouds, cedars and shorelines,
before sealing all back together in shifting hues of night.
What seems like the end, again a beginning.
What can’t be said, suddenly pouring down everywhere.
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