Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me - A Poem for Earth Day

LAST NIGHT THE RAIN SPOKE TO ME                                                                                         by Mary Oliver from What Do We Know:  Poems and Prose Poems (De Capo Press)

After a rain shower, gardens at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing
under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,
and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment
my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars
and the soft rain –
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

 

Today is Earth Day and here in the DC area, Mother Earth is getting just what she needs:  a good soaking rain.  I'd hoped the showers would hold off long enough for me to take a walk in Rock Creek Park this morning but no such luck. 

So instead this evening I have contented myself by reading some Wendell Berry poetry and then various poems about rain.  I finally settled on the Mary Oliver poem above as my offering for this Sunday.  Maybe tomorrow if it clears up, I'll go stand under a tree (I'll make sure it's one with happy leaves) but for now, I'm off to snuggle up in my bed with a cup of peppermint tea and a book. . . . just what I need this Sunday night.