Maureen Thorson, the master mind behind Napowrimo says: “This prompt challenges you to play around with the idea of overheard language. . . Now, write a poem that takes as its starting point something overheard that made you laugh, or something someone told you once that struck you as funny.”
The overheard language around me today did not make me laugh or inspire me, so I dipped into a journal and found another one of those many prose practice writings and transformed it (I hope) to a poem.
Rain Again! Yes!
Rain Again!
“Oh no, rain again,” someone said.
Rain, Spain, main, shame, blame—
my mind reels. What rhymes
with rain? The rain I am grateful for
as it nourishes my flowers, my garden,
plants, trees, birds, fills the rivers.
A rain dance, my tarot card proclaims I can do
as an archetypal witch, so I claim the rain power.
For like the rain, I can nourish, surprise,
make happy, drench away sad.
Oh, it’s raining on the parade (so we all run
laughing, splash in puddles, take off our shoes,
get lost in the parade crowd, tears in the rain.
Some say the rain puts a damper on,
some blame the rain, but I resolve
never to shame myself for dancing for rain
on behalf of moon flowers, oleanders, doves,
nuthatches, owls, hawks, farmers—
Dance witch woman!
Dance wildly for the rain.
You really don’t have to explain!
Jacquelyn Markham (4/11/2023)
Image courtesy of khum.com
Poet Voice 