Thursday, June 17, 2010

if lives were raindrops


if lives were raindrops
the tale
of your birth
would be told in the air

your flight
from cloud
to earth
a rite of passage
before melding
with this world


where just as suddenly
as you were born
your existence
might resolve as a ripple

sometimes quiet
sometimes subdued

perhaps
a silvery globule
of water on a leaf

or
an unlikely
sculpture
momentarily
hovering above the flow
of a vast river

or perhaps
a moment
of elegant and absolute presence
in which your unlikely
and unexpected nature
is subsumed
into some soft lagoon

each ripple an echo

a liquid tracery
telling
of your arrival
and then also
of your passing

13 comments:

Renée said...

very beautiful, Steven!

Lorenzo — Alchemist's Pillow said...

Ah, if rain was always so gentle. Thanks for these luscious quiet moments with the rain, Steven.

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

That felt like reading liquid love in 'some soft lagoon', steven.

In the grand scheme of things that's what we are, isn't it - a drop, perhaps a momentary ripple, - but there are those among us determined to come and go with a splash.

steven said...

thankyou very much renee! steven

steven said...

lorenzo it absolutely poured down yesterday. it was spectacular! i rode to a spot near the river that flows through my town for these puddle pictures. i got soaked but it's for a good cause! steven

steven said...

bonnie that's what it is!!! i'm not as concerned with the scale of my presence or effect as i used to be. at one point it was how i defined myself. i recognize my work and purpose now with much less of a sense of scale. have a lovely day. steven

Elisabeth said...

Steven this poem is particularly beautiful. I don't think it's my imagination. I look out for your posts most days and every day they seem to get better, deeper, more profound and lovely. And that does not include the wonders of your photography. Thank you.

Reya Mellicker said...

Beautiful! I wrote a story when I was a little kid about Walter the raindrop and his life cycle. It was not so elegant as this, oh no. Same idea, though.

Tess Kincaid said...

I'm taking away a lovely soft lagoonish feeling. Sigh. Thank you, Steven.

Your rain puddle shot fits so nicely into your series of puddly art!

Helen said...

As always, photos and prose are lovely! And deep ....

Dan Gurney said...

"or
an unlikely
sculpture
momentarily
hovering above the flow
of a vast river"

A sublime poem, steven. We are, in our "individuality" (an odd, misleading word) very much like drops of rain who've forgotten from whence we came to forgotten, too, where we're going.

May we all become elegant snowflake crystals, or nourishing rain, or whatever the larger whole needs most.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I like liquid tracery steven. Lovely poem.

Jinksy said...

I'd be a happy raindrop, being part of the waters of life!