Rain Woman

Why do you follow me,
grasp my hand, pulling constantly
towards a perpetual downpour?

I don’t want to drown with you and your
black felt hat, from which rain spills
in dank cataracts or rills.

How does it feel to never dry?
Although your fish-eyes
are closed, I feel

your stare. Slippery as an eel,
you swim nightmarishly through
my restless sleep.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
but fear that you will eat it whole.

Kim M. Russell, 20th October 2026

‘Rain Woman’, Svetlana Telets, 1996

This Tuesday’s Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub is hosted by Melissa – with a haunting.

She says that when looking around for spooky paintings, since it is spooky season, she came across a list of “reportedly haunted” works of art and thought it might be fun to compose poems about them. She adds that some of the paintings are just as creepy as the strange tales surrounding them. She’s right about that!

Melissa has shared three paintings from which we should choose any one and compose a poem of 31 lines or fewer. She asks, “What misfortunes do the artworks stir in you, the viewer?”

I chose ‘Rain Woman’ by Ukrainian artist Svetlana Telets. I like the rainy colours in the background and the pale woman with elongated features, a long neck, wearing a large black hat as she stands in the rain, which I think looks as if she is drowning. Apparently, the artist claimed that “for months leading up to her painting, she felt an invisible presence watching her constantly. She claims to have felt an invisible force guide her hand like a puppeteer while creating it.”

What drew me to Telets’ painting was that it was “purchased and returned multiple times by buyers who reported the painting caused them to experience insomnia, nightmares, and an eery sensation of being watched. Some even claimed that a shadowy figure followed them through their homes.”

34 thoughts on “Rain Woman”

  2. Oh dear, this has the right amount of tension, definitely, very good poetry…I should not have read it, as I chose the same painting, and must not let it influence...why do you follow me …indeed…

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  12. So visceral. I would never buy that painting. I don’t even want to look at it. 😂 These lines made me squirm:

    “How does it feel to never dry?
    Although your fish-eyes
    are closed, I feelyour stare. Slippery as an eel,
    you swim nightmarishly through
    my restless sleep.”

    I’m glad it’s very sunny here today! 😊

    Liked by 1 person

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