A Poem for a Thursday #119
My son walked by and asked what I was writing about. I told him I was writing my 118th (this was last week) Poem for a Thursday post. He looked vaguely baffled and asked if I had really been able to come up with 118 poems that I like. Why yes, yes, I have. I am just as surprised by that as he is. Actually, I have an entire list of poems saved that I would like to feature one day. What has happened to me and where has my previously poem-neutral self gone? Today’s poem caught my attention because of the phrase “the small applause of rain.” I really like that.
I wake to the small applause of rain, then sleep again and somewhere between dusk and dawn a curtain falls and rises. My dreams carry me on their shifting backs as if I were the round earth balanced on the back of the tortoise which pulls its head in now, safe and dry within its perfect mosaic. Listen: it is raining; there is applause. I must take my bows and cross the swaying bridge suspended between sleep and what is coming next. The Crossing Richard Brautigan
6 Comments
Joan Kyler
When I was a teenager in the 1960s, Richard Brautigan was one of my favorite writers / poets. Thanks for sharing this simple but lovely poem. I love the description of the rain, too, ‘small applause’. Perfect.
jllee656
I wasn’t familiar with him at all so this was a lovely discovery.
Katrina
Yet another poet that I’ve never even heard of but the poem is lovely, you’re turning me into a person who appreciates poetry and I never really rated it before.
jllee656
I am turning myself into a person that appreciates poetry! I hadn’t heard of him either.
Brona
This was me this morning. Summer rain applauding on the roof and trees outside, probably rather louder than I would prefer, but a lovely sound to roll over a snooze to for a little longer 🙂
I love a poem can capture a moment so succinctly.
jllee656
Yes, that is what I liked about it. You were there with the poet experiencing what he was feeling. I suppose that is what good writing is all about.