gurdonark

That fellow Fogerty's lyrics fail to impress me generally, but I love that lyric in which he implores the listener--"have you ever seen the rain?". For me, the sight of distant rain ranks among my favorite commonplace pleasures.

The "smell" of impending rain, which I'm told is really the smell of far-off dust stirred by distant rain, appeals to me. The sight of streaks of dark purple clouds on a stormy horizon, "rain falling" literally to ground, gives me a bit of a thrill.

I remember once my wife and I were out for dinner in January in a Southern California restaurant in the foothills called The Barkley. We looked outside, and in what had formerly been a clear night, a vivid, large-raindrop, torrid storm had begun. We felt that shiver of safe comfort and dry harbors.

I suppose I should find some metaphor about dark clouds and dark moods, but my life doesn't really work that way. I sometimes see sunny days in dark clouds. I also see sunny days in the sight of a reddish sun setting over farm fields. In this year of astronomic wonders, the sight of Mars winking beside the Moon enchants me.

I imagine that on a planet far away, some other being looks up at the sky, and sees something novel, and smiles. I imagine that a cormorant sees water breaking, and dreams of a fish beneath. I imagine that I look through a kaleidoscope, and see the swirl of prisms, and smile.