Last Night the Rain Spoke To Me

We read this at the EarthSpirit Beltane in eastern Massachusetts as part of the ritual and I loved it, so here it is for you!  This is an excerpt of a poem by Mary Oliver; the full text is published in her book, What Do We Know: Poems and Prose Poems.

Last night

Photo by Shawn Nystrand

Photo by Shawn Nystrand

the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,

what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud…

That’s what it said
as it dropped,

smelling of iron,
and vanished…

Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing

under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,

and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment

my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars

and the soft rain –
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

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