The Rain

(This is intended as a pastiche of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells.")

by Jessica Cripps

Feel the warm and welcome rain--
April rain,
forging flowers from the earthen tomb
of January's bane.
Peeping crocuses arise,
and the daffodils disguise
every element of recent winter gloom.
And the droplets on your face
most delightfully erase
any stubborn, ugly trace
of icy doom.
As the gentle drizzle falls,
every budding shoot recalls
the virility of springtime once again.
And the rain, sweet rain,
welcome on the windowpane,
raises flowers on the plain,
drunk on honey nectar rain;
the caresses and the whispers
of the rain.

Drink the tingle of the rain--
Summer rain.
How electric in the evening
of the sultry August plain!
How tempestuous and bright,
in the balminess of night,
is the lightning that erupts out from the rain!
And the thunderstorms alight,
charging lovers with delight,
giving little ones a fright
out in the rain.
And the splash against your skin
cools desire and quenches sin
that was hastily committed in the rain.
And the fever heat takes wing,
and the honeysuckles sing
in open-throated glory to the rain;
to the thick, hot rain,
to the fragrant, lazy rain,
to the overwhelming, liberating rain.

Hear the pounding of the rain--
Autumn rain.
How relentlessly the rivulets
run down the windowpane!
And the torrents come in sheets
as the water hammer beats
a cacophony of never-ending rain.
And it soaks you to the bone,
leaves you chillingly alone
as you're stranded in the godforsaken rain.
How it pours! How it roars!
How it penetrates the cores
of the living and the dying just the same!
In the blustery November,
not a soul that can remember
there was ever such a thing as gentle rain.
And the melancholy leaves
flutter downward. Nature grieves
for her masterpieces drowning in the rain.
Choking, suffocating rain!
How it splashes! How it clashes
in a symphony of pain!
And it crashes, and it dashes
up against that windowpane!
The monotony assails you
and your better judgment fails you
as you rush into the cold, unearthly rain!
And it roars! And it pours!
And it clashes! And it splashes!
And you're out there, rolling naked in the rain!
It's as if some force compelled you, and you're helpless to   explain
Of the power of the rain--
Of the rapture of the rain--
Of the mystery of rain--
Oh! The hypnotizing shudder of the rain.

© 2010 by Jessica Cripps