Haha! Yes, at the suggestion of my offspring, grocery lists are already swelling by a cake here, a pie there. 🙄 This is a sign of thoughtfulness for their parent, right??
Love this Tara. Our third and final prospective driver just received her license last month. I have no confidence boosters, unfortunately. She's an anxious and aware driver, which I consider a plus. Good luck with the tall one:).
Tara, Rona Maynard pointed me in the direction of your post--I love your wrap up and intro of new things to come. I hope you don't mind if I mention a poem of my own about rain.
But to answer your question first, I love fall and in the Seattle area we are definitely turning towards Autumn with a delicious change in the weather.
The poem is called Rain Sonnet, from my book "Hearts on Pilgrimage Poems and Prayers" written a few Junes back after a very noisy, thunder-laden rain storm.
Jody, There is no better place for your rain sonnet than here in this call for poems about rain and thunder! Thank you for sharing it. I love the images of the tympani and thunderous sermon. You remind me of childhood Novembers in Tacoma, when tree branches came down and roof shingles fell off. Your poem is in good company here!
I love hearing your ode September, such a wide,open-armed welcome! Just last week we had a similar “oops wrong address” rain, followed by a good soak, but no thunder. Oh PNW, why won’t you thunder like the east and Midwest of my youth?
Lively, lovely, playful writing Tara. Thank you for putting a smile on my face.
My husband cut my Lantana all the way to the ground in mid-July. I was so mad! Thankfully, it has come back, but hasn’t bloomed again. Hopefully, it will bloom later this month and I’ll still get visits from the butterflies that feast on the flowers.
I’ve sent two new drivers out into the world. Nothing, in my opinion, is more terrifying! We live in Dallas which I’m sure adds to the terror. I will refrain from sharing my oldest child’s first week as a licensed driver. Good luck to your new driver!
Oh, I'm sure you're sorry to lose those blooms. Maybe yours will come back in double density, like mine. And my foliage does look better for the trim. My pollinators are getting the memo and coming back. This reminds me of how terrified I used to be of pulling weeds in my mother's garden. I didn't know how she knew what the weeds were. I sure didn't. It's funny to look at our gardens through someone else's eyes.
Terror, yes, I'm feelin' it. I like thinking in terms of weeks. We can get through one week at a time, surely. 😬
The best advice I can give the young driver is: ALWAYS wear your seatbelt. My son didn’t, and his mother had to appear in court over it. I wished we could have had a refund of his driver’s ed tuition.
And September is the best month of the year. It begins in summer and ends in fall. Glorious.
I hated school so September for me was the cruelest month. That feeling has faded but not completely.
However, this was such a beautiful piece of writing, Tara, that if September was your inspiration then I have to give the month some deserved props and redemption.
I loved this bit: "Here is my splendid songflower just this morning, shorter now, but densely, adamantly abloom:."
Thank you, David. I'm glad to spread a little September-love where I can. 🤗 I love that line about the flower, too. I erased a few adverbs before I got to "adamantly," and then it was just the thing. Kinda proud of that little plant.
Sorry buddy, I have no words for the new driver or the new driver's Mom except, "you'll get used to it"!🤣 I am also a September person and, as this is our first year with no school in 22 years (not including our own education) it is feeling exceptionally strange.
😅🤣 That’s kinda what I’m thinking. 💭 I spent one year working outside of an academic environment and knew I had the back-to-school bug for life. I love a campus in all its seasons. When I retire, nice security people will be plucking me off benches asking if I need an escort home. 🙄🤷♀️
In August, we almost always get a day or two with lower temperatures and humidity. For me, it's nature's way of letting me know that I'll survive the rest of summer. I'm glad your evening primrose survived the overzealous gardener! Peace, peace, peace.
Ahh! I love the unseasonable days - like warm ones in a northern winter. That primrose is much hardier than I realized. Doesn’t that have wonderful metaphoric possibilities? 🌸💪🏼😅
1. I love Sept. October is even better. Endings and new beginnings. There are always opportunities to learn.
2. My son has ADD so I won't tell you about his first year of driving. My nephew, however, was an instant competent, aware driver.
4. I always defer to the great bard. This one from the Scottish play. “Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly 's done, when the battle 's lost and won...”
1. Yes, it feels like a time for learning for me, too. The teacher/student role doesn't change that. By the time someone gets to be a teacher, they're a habitual learner (one hopes!).
2. Haha - thank you for bringing the nephew into it. Competence is the whole shebang.
4. Great choice! Oh, the witches would have had a grand time at my house yesterday, but they'd have shaken their hair at the wimpy thunder for shuffling off so fast. Those witches expect more from their weather than we got.
I’m also a September birthday. The best month! Thanks for this meditation.
Cool! Has your date passed already?
The 3rd 😊
Happy belated, under-the-radar bday! 🎂
Happy ahead-of-schedule celebration! :)
Haha! Yes, at the suggestion of my offspring, grocery lists are already swelling by a cake here, a pie there. 🙄 This is a sign of thoughtfulness for their parent, right??
I love August with a passion, and September is our breakup song.
Sara Teasdale’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” I just love for the lyricism. I know it by heart.
What a poem! Thank you for that. What a punch it packs through light, lovely lines. I hope September goes easy on you. 🥰
FELICES TARA PENRYTARA PENRY Y QUIET READING
Gracias, Amalia!
Love this Tara. Our third and final prospective driver just received her license last month. I have no confidence boosters, unfortunately. She's an anxious and aware driver, which I consider a plus. Good luck with the tall one:).
Congrats on getting 3 licensed! The tall one has some caution that should serve him well. :-)
That’s good. One of mine does not, which is a little stressful.
Just a little. 😬🫨🙈
Lovely post, Tara. Talking of months, November by Ted Hughes is one of my favourite poems about rain.
Now that's real rain! And poetry: "And again the rains’ dragging grey columns / Smudged the farms." Love it!
Tara, Rona Maynard pointed me in the direction of your post--I love your wrap up and intro of new things to come. I hope you don't mind if I mention a poem of my own about rain.
But to answer your question first, I love fall and in the Seattle area we are definitely turning towards Autumn with a delicious change in the weather.
The poem is called Rain Sonnet, from my book "Hearts on Pilgrimage Poems and Prayers" written a few Junes back after a very noisy, thunder-laden rain storm.
Rain Sonnet
Liquid silver stream, muffled staccato
Plays while music rivulets, moistens earth,
A sonorous tune this gray summer’s day.
Cloud-topped sun now hides in June’s dull shadow
While we quiet ourselves and listen first
For what the meteoric language has to say.
Invisible tympani crashing now
On the heels of jagged flashing and bows
As an audience of two turns away
While fearing this horizon near to burst
With thunderous sermon both soft and low
Might split the Heavens with its sharps and flats
And leave the listeners each quaking and slow
While the powerful Conductor continues to play.
Jody, There is no better place for your rain sonnet than here in this call for poems about rain and thunder! Thank you for sharing it. I love the images of the tympani and thunderous sermon. You remind me of childhood Novembers in Tacoma, when tree branches came down and roof shingles fell off. Your poem is in good company here!
I love hearing your ode September, such a wide,open-armed welcome! Just last week we had a similar “oops wrong address” rain, followed by a good soak, but no thunder. Oh PNW, why won’t you thunder like the east and Midwest of my youth?
Lively, lovely, playful writing Tara. Thank you for putting a smile on my face.
Thank you, Kimberly! Glad to induce smiles. :-) I love a nice “wrong address” rain for the brief warning it gives before the gusher. 💭
Very impressive feat by your evening primrose.
Congratulations on your son's (and his parents') achievement... and my deepest condolences for what it is about to do to your auto insurance premiums.
I don't know that I have a favorite poem about rain and thunder, but I couldn't help thinking of Robert Louis Stevenson's very simple but very nice "Rain" (https://allpoetry.com/poem/8450523-Rain-by-Robert-Louis-Stevenson).
That’s a sweet quatrain! I need to trot that out after a grueling class with T. S. Eliot to remind the students that high modernism was just one era.
I love your almost post that is an actual post with its promise of renewal and September surprises.
"And then some careless god tripped over a valve up above. Rain surged down..." Lovely and whimsical image, Tara.
Haha! That's it to a T. I love when the whimsy gets in. Just makes me want to keep writing. ;-)
My husband cut my Lantana all the way to the ground in mid-July. I was so mad! Thankfully, it has come back, but hasn’t bloomed again. Hopefully, it will bloom later this month and I’ll still get visits from the butterflies that feast on the flowers.
I’ve sent two new drivers out into the world. Nothing, in my opinion, is more terrifying! We live in Dallas which I’m sure adds to the terror. I will refrain from sharing my oldest child’s first week as a licensed driver. Good luck to your new driver!
Oh, I'm sure you're sorry to lose those blooms. Maybe yours will come back in double density, like mine. And my foliage does look better for the trim. My pollinators are getting the memo and coming back. This reminds me of how terrified I used to be of pulling weeds in my mother's garden. I didn't know how she knew what the weeds were. I sure didn't. It's funny to look at our gardens through someone else's eyes.
Terror, yes, I'm feelin' it. I like thinking in terms of weeks. We can get through one week at a time, surely. 😬
The best advice I can give the young driver is: ALWAYS wear your seatbelt. My son didn’t, and his mother had to appear in court over it. I wished we could have had a refund of his driver’s ed tuition.
And September is the best month of the year. It begins in summer and ends in fall. Glorious.
Whew, thanks for the driver advice. No one wants to learn something like that the hard way. Sorry that happened.
Well said about September. That sums it up nicely!
I hated school so September for me was the cruelest month. That feeling has faded but not completely.
However, this was such a beautiful piece of writing, Tara, that if September was your inspiration then I have to give the month some deserved props and redemption.
I loved this bit: "Here is my splendid songflower just this morning, shorter now, but densely, adamantly abloom:."
"...densely, adamantly abloom."
Thank you, David. I'm glad to spread a little September-love where I can. 🤗 I love that line about the flower, too. I erased a few adverbs before I got to "adamantly," and then it was just the thing. Kinda proud of that little plant.
I love fall. But it hasn’t quite descended where I am. Temps keep on soaring. Summer’s clinging on. Still, I hear the bells of renewal on the wind.
Looking forward to meeting you of a Friday. :)
Friday ho! Autumn ho! Yesterday might have been our turn of the season. I hope yours comes soon.
Sorry buddy, I have no words for the new driver or the new driver's Mom except, "you'll get used to it"!🤣 I am also a September person and, as this is our first year with no school in 22 years (not including our own education) it is feeling exceptionally strange.
😅🤣 That’s kinda what I’m thinking. 💭 I spent one year working outside of an academic environment and knew I had the back-to-school bug for life. I love a campus in all its seasons. When I retire, nice security people will be plucking me off benches asking if I need an escort home. 🙄🤷♀️
In August, we almost always get a day or two with lower temperatures and humidity. For me, it's nature's way of letting me know that I'll survive the rest of summer. I'm glad your evening primrose survived the overzealous gardener! Peace, peace, peace.
Ahh! I love the unseasonable days - like warm ones in a northern winter. That primrose is much hardier than I realized. Doesn’t that have wonderful metaphoric possibilities? 🌸💪🏼😅
Sometimes, Tara, it feels like I live for those metaphoric possibilities.
With a newsletter name like Chicken Scratch, how could it be otherwise? 🥰
1. I love Sept. October is even better. Endings and new beginnings. There are always opportunities to learn.
2. My son has ADD so I won't tell you about his first year of driving. My nephew, however, was an instant competent, aware driver.
4. I always defer to the great bard. This one from the Scottish play. “Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly 's done, when the battle 's lost and won...”
Oops, I was too late and you said it first, but still,
1. I love Sept. October is even better. Endings and new beginnings. There are always opportunities to learn.
And Tara, I am also a late September baby.
“From the cold nestings of January, we came forth in the golden days, in the warm afternoons, in the crisp mornings, under the azure skies.”
1. 😂
2. Get out!
3. Exactly right. I can't think of a better time to be born.
😮28🫢
Psst. Your # - 3 = 🥳 🙋🏻♀️ 🤫
Older, way older! 🫠
Also timeless.
1. Yes, it feels like a time for learning for me, too. The teacher/student role doesn't change that. By the time someone gets to be a teacher, they're a habitual learner (one hopes!).
2. Haha - thank you for bringing the nephew into it. Competence is the whole shebang.
4. Great choice! Oh, the witches would have had a grand time at my house yesterday, but they'd have shaken their hair at the wimpy thunder for shuffling off so fast. Those witches expect more from their weather than we got.