20 June 2013

Poetry Thursday - Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me by Mary Oliver

Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me

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!

Mary Oliver (b.1935) has been described as America's best-selling poet. Her poetry is grounded in memories of Ohio and New England, and influenced by Whitman and Thoreau. She is an avid walker and her poetry is filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

I came across the poem - and the photograph - on Steve McCurry's blog, which so well combines words with his images. stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/life-breath-of-half-the-world vividly shows how torrential - and how important - the monsoon rains are to so very many people.

1 comment:

The Idaho Beauty said...

My yoga teacher often shares Mary Oliver poems to begin or end sessions. Always some small thing we can think about as we move through the poses. This is one I hadn't come across, but very fitting as it has been raining here for two days after quite a long spell of non-rainy weather.