Summer Rain Poem

 

'it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower...'

I posted this poem previously here, but since it bears a new title now (as it appears in the latest collection 'Falling Awake' from Alice Oswald), I'll post it again.

And, because right now, I really need to read something that captures some beauty about this dismal summer rain we've been having...! :(

A Short Story of Falling - Alice Oswald

It is the story of the falling rain
to turn into a leaf and fall again

it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower

and every flower a tiny tributary
that from the ground flows green and momentary

is one of water’s wishes and this tale
hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail

if only I a passerby could pass
as clear as water through a plume of grass

to find the sunlight hidden at the tip
turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip

then I might know like water how to balance
the weight of hope against the light of patience

water which is so raw so earthy-strong
and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along

drawn under gravity towards my tongue
to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song

which is the story of the falling rain
that rises to the light and falls again