Even as it falls from a rowan’s red berries,
a ripening myth of the goddess Hebes,
saucer ready to collect each drop
of liquid life, I smile while I am sopped.
Rain in my hair and on my neck, falling
in cool cascading rivulets, soaking
a sweater you once lent me in your
garden in an unexpected downpour.
At supper time in late September,
evening approaches ever sooner,
speaks of the demise of summer
to prepare me for the coming winter.
The rain-crystalled berries dazzle my
eye; I lower my head from the tearful sky.
Kim M. Russell, 6th April 2022

On the sixth day of NaPoWriMo, our challenge is to write a variation of an acrostic, a poem often written at school, in which the first letter of each line spells a word vertically. Rather than spelling out a word with the first letters of each line, we are writing poems that reproduce a phrase with the first words of each line, for example a poem in which the first words of each line, read together, reproduce a treasured line of poetry, a newspaper headline or something from a magazine article. I took fourteen words from Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘The Grammar of Light’:
“Even a saucer of rain in a garden at evening
speaks to the eye.’
Linked to What’s Going On? on 3rd July 2024.
I love the imagery in this, Kim! 💕🙂
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Well done, Kim. Thanks.
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I like especially the last couplet. And good choice of poet. (K)
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Thanks Kerfe!
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This is shiveringly vivid. Brrr!
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Thanks Marilyn. It was like that this afternoon!
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I was freezing last night! Had to fetch a blanket out of the cupboard.
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Wonderful take on this prompt. I could so relate because I love to walk in a warm rain.
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Thank you, LuAnne, I’m delighted you like it!
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Lovely to surrender to the rain, letting it wash over you. I can see you, through these words.
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Thank you, Sherry. It’s been raining a lot again. It’s hard to believe that it’s July.
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Love this and the sensual way it flows through the poem. This sparkles in the rain.
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Thank you kindly, Alan
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You’ve made rain look so pretty, Kim. The closing couplet is beyond beautiful. “a ripening myth of the goddess Hebes,
saucer ready to collect each drop
of liquid life,”…Love this so much.
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Thank you very much, Sumana!
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I can really picture this rain, Kim. The final couplet is out of this world stunning!
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Thank you so much, Mary!
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Wow soaked in sensuousness !
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Thanks Dora!
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Rain-crystalled berries is a wonderful image, Kim… I like the pivot to the story fo the sweater…
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Thank you, Rajani!
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So very beautiful – I love it it begins and ends with the berries – a real exploration of the senses – Jae
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I’m not sure if my first comment took – but this is absolutely beautiful – Jae
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Thank you so much, Jae.
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A dear and sweet poem!! Very visual!! The red berries will stay with me today. Thank you. annell
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Thank you, Annell!
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Beautiful, especially the bittersweet ending.
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Thank you, Shay.
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