Precipitation

blade clear dawn dew
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Precipitation

The rain, it rains like rainy rain,
The time, it ticks so slow.
It soaks the garden, soaks the lane,
It soaks the overflow
Won’t it ever shine again ?
Won’t it ever go ?

We curse these clouds we undergo,
We curse this ever-rain –
But still the gullies rush and flow
And wash the boggy lane.
Oh, must the day creep by so slow,
And with so little gain ?

We check the window once again,
We watch the drops that flow.
Perhaps the clouds are bored of rain,
Have somewhere else to go ?
Check the garden, check the lane –
Not too quick.  Be slow.

It hasn’t yet begun to slow,
It’s coming hard again.
It should’ve stopped an age ago,
Instead it has free rein.
So down to earth the clouds all flow
Upon the roof and lane.

We long to be upon the lane
Where blooms the indigo,
We long the garden to regain
Between the may and sloe.
Instead, the clouds forever reign,
Like icebergs in a floe.

So round and round our thought must flow –
The clouds.  The time.  The lane.
And like the day, they crawl so slow,
As round they crawl again.
They’re stuck with us, nowhere to go –
And still comes down the rain.

This is a sestina, whereby the six endwords are repeated each verse in a different order.  Tradition also requires a seventh mini-verse, or envoy, to round things off, but I’ve never seen the point.

Summer Block

clear glass cup with fruits and water inside beside slice fruitas
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Summer Block

Ah, the lazy days of Summer:
Long and languid afternoons,
When cares are short and drinks are tall,
And lives are endless honeymoons.
So who would sweat on metric feet,
To try to pen a tricky rhyme ?
Just close the jotters, pencils down,
And let it go.  It’s not the time.

On such a scorching hummer
When our cares are short and drinks are tall,
And lives are endless honeymoons,
Then no-one thirsts for verse at all.
So let it go, it’s not the time –
Just close the jotters, pencils down.
Our brains would only overheat
If assonance should raise a frown.

On long and languid afternoons,
Just who would sweat on metric feet
When no-one thirsts for verse at all ?
Our brains would only overheat.
Don’t try to pen a tricky rhyme
On such a scorching hummer.
No assonance should raise a frown
On the lazy days of Summer.

Charge

lightning in sky at night
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Charge

A lightning flash –
        one-thousand-and-one
Its photons dash
        one-thousand-and-two
Into my eyes
        one-thousand-and-three
Through rain-soaked skies.
        one-thousand-and-four
I wonder how far
        one-thousand-and-five
Those flashes are ?
        one-thousand-and-six
Been brewing all week,
        one-thousand-and-seven
This cleansing streak.
        one-thousand-and-eight
Hang on, have I missed it ?
        one-thousand-and-nine
Or is it too distant ?
        one-thousand-and-ten
I feel a bit cheated,
        one-thousand-eleven
The clap uncompleted –
        one-thousand-and-twelve
You can’t give us flashes
        one-thousand-and-thirteen
Without giving crashes…
        one-thousand-and-f……finally !