A Blessing for a Foggy Saturday

     

    God bless us on the streets and in the fog;
    God bless us on the road and in the rain. 
    Feet dry, spirits high
    until we come home safe again. 

We're Livin' Life

 

    Sometimes while I'm out delivering the mail I sing. Here's a song I wrote as I walked my route this weekend. Someone joked that I think I'm the next John Prine. Ha. 

    Apparently I skipped a verse when I recorded it. Ah well... There were five or six other verses that I wrote and discarded even before I sat down today to record it. And it's possible that I might add more later. I dunno. 

Rain is knocking leaves from the trees,
rain is falling down on me
yeah, I don’t mind.

No speaking angel on the telephone,
I’m listening to the dial tone
yeah, dial again.

Welcome home my traveling friend,
drag your dusty bones on in
yeah, tell me where ya’ been.

Stand the table, turn the lights,
you and I’ll stay up all night
yeah, with some homemade wine.

Tellin’ tales and trading stories,
remembering all our faded glories
yeah, remember when?

Fanaticism to the right,
materialism hangs on tight
yeah, we’re caught in between.

Faith is an ally in the search for truth,
both would help in the voting booth
yeah, I’m radicalized.

The rich get richer and the poor stay poor,
they have it all and they still want more
yeah, they say that greed is good.

I’m afraid that I can say no more,
you’ve heard all of this before
yeah, and nothing’s changed.

All day long with snow and rain,
every day another pain
yeah, we’re livin’ life.

Tournesol sous la Pluie

In the Rain

The Water is Wide

A few weeks ago, while I was at work inspecting one of the tower sections in our storage lot, I had the idea to make a quick recording for my wife. I used my phone to record myself singing the folk-song, The Water is Wide" for her. It was raining, and there was a brief outburst from my radio.  Still. Not bad for a two minute diversion.

There are several more verses to the song. The third verse here is one that I wrote.

February

Biblical Limericks: Sweaty Sky

To see the Lord is awesome, you bet,
even nature by fear is beset.
The wind stops its bluster,
the heavens get flustered -
the sky sees God and breaks out in sweat.

Psalm 68: 8

Working from Mitchell Dahood's  translation:

The earth quaked and the heavens sprinkled
at the sight of God...

"Just as a person breaks out into a sweat at the sight of an unexpected caller, so the heavens drip with rain when God appears in a theophany " (138)

Dahood, Mitchell. Psalms II 51 - 100: Introduction, Translation, and Notes. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1968. Print.

After the Rain

April Lilacs

November Rain

The City after Midnight

Please, welcome to the city after midnight, the city filled with drums. Please, excuse. Things get loud here and no one sleeps but everyone pretends, posing in front of disco mirrors like drunken children. It is a city in the rain, artificial rain, yes, falling from wispy clouds of cigarette smoke. True. The rain will continue to fall, many days, long nights. Give it time.

Now comes the Doctor, a good man, but sad. The Doctor in the Dark. I see him by flashes of screaming lightning. A good man, but he carries a gun, looking for ghosts. He has strange dreams and bad coffee. He says little because there is no good news in hospital hallways.

He remembers red lipstick flashbacks, broken neon exposure, and all the non-sequitur posturing in the dressing room. Outside, in the parking lot, blood on the pavement and broken glass. Who was here? What was her name? The Doctor does not say. But I say she will return, inevitable like the rain, but until then the Doctor is distressed, crawling out of his skin and into hers.

Strange strangulations here. Stay away from the dead. Let the police work their disinterested routine investigations. You stay away from the dead. Stolen phone number stalkers and psycho club dealers are near. It does not matter; it was not a robbery. It was something worse.

“Have Gun. Will Stumble.” I clipped the advertisement from the paper. This one and the one about fist fights in the parking lot. Was the Doctor there? I hear many private words secretly spoken, but ask me no more questions. Trust me or trust your dollar. Your choice. Choose. The gun seen in the first act must go off in the third. And it does. Yes. Complicated people always die, but never the right ones.

There is blood, always blood. So much blood. Yes. Action camera news arrive before the police. “Help me,” are the fainting last words of the Doctor. Shooting at shadows, shattering windows. A shout. A woman’s scream and night.

Rain for many days now, yes. Many days and long nights. Maybe you do not come back to the city? Yes?

Duet for Thunderstorm and Piano

We’re looking for storms tonight. We’d like thunderstorms, but we’ll be satisfied with plain rain. A rousing thunderstorm would be beautiful; bring on the storm with stabbing, dashing forks of crooked lightning; give us thunder rumbles that would shake the fortitude of even the mightiest of men. Let the rain come down in that spacious smell of petrichor and ozone in the evening. Give us a breeze blowing through the bedroom window as we sleep, white noise dreaming of thunder beyond the curtains.

That’s me – and I don’t even look like me when I’m sleeping. Ignore the doorbell. Ignore the phone. Let me sleep. Let me dream. Let me listen to the night. I love this song: Duet for Thunderstorm and Piano.

We’re looking for storms tonight, for magnificent weather, wishing for winds to blow through the building, and through the budding trees, for rain falling from a low ceilinged sky. We’re watching for lightning strikes. We’re watching for repeated lightning strikes. We’re waiting for the flash and boom of mellifluous thunder so loud that it cracks the sky in half. I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have said anything because it’s time for me to go to sleep.

The boy child of memory sits at the screen door during the thunderstorm with a coloring book and a stuffed rabbit. The rain is his favorite friend. The telephone rings and everything begins again. Waiting for you in the morning with an eye for the falling. Potted plants and ringing phones go on forever. Have we arrived? Are we lost? Let me watch and smell and feel the rain and I am content.

Pink Grey

Perhaps it could be said that many of my posts are somewhat melancholic, or are downright depressive. Perhaps. Here's something to brighten up the place a bit. It's not all gloom and glower around here.

All My Yesterdays

Rainy November Night Lights

I went out last night, after watching The Walking Dead with my family, after finishing my homework, and after a final cup of coffee, to walk around in the near freezing rain. Why? Photography, of course.

When It Rains in November

When it rains in November everything gets smeared.

After the Storm

A storm blew through our area this afternoon, sudden and violent. Rain and howling wind.  And then, as abruptly as it began, it was over. The light of the setting sun glittered in the lingering rain drops. All was calm again. Well... almost everything.

Heavy Cloud, No Rain

Heavy cloud but no rain
the sun won't shine till the clouds are gone
the clouds won't go till their work is done
and every morning you'll hear me pray
if only it would rain today.

October in the Rain

"...what do I care?"

Rain of Fire

It will occasionally rain fire in South Dakota...