rain – Jane Dougherty Writes

gogyohka: yes, it’s still raining

birds

in the claws of the wind

torn from sky perches

wings bent to another course

slice through the rain

gogyohka for unchanging weather

tip tap tip tap

and the raging of the birds

only gloom where light should be

colour a palette of grey-green

in the masterful grip of the rain

Spring wind

Rain3

Wind winds through cracks and crannies, picking at

the insulation around the frames of window and door,

poking frigid fingers into spine and soup, chilling hot

food with a frozen flap of the hand. Wind whines in

the chimney, rattling doors to get in, riffling the pages

of an open book, rustling like dead leaves or flame-

crackle in the stove. Wind wins the battle with defences,

teasing the cracked plaster apart to whisper with thin lips,

This is the way of spring, the bright promises made, the

singing and the shooting, the sharp cut and thrust of birth.

Gogyohka: autumn rain

I look for light where there is none,

taste the wind

for a salt memory of the sea

and touch the wild grasses

for the fleeting presence of a hare

wind blows

full of damp grey ribbons of cloud

streaks and shafts of steely grey

rain-wet and dew-wet

and a scattering of noisy finches

dusk seeps and creeps

beneath the cloud

between the rain drops

among the raggedy grass soldiers

still standing

Blue wind

This wind full of sheets of rain

pounds the house

as waves pound a cliff face,

and the air fills with the red roar of sea horses,

bucking blue and green as the deeps,

always too elusive to catch

in these sodden meadows

even with the eye of longing.

November

autumn1

days of wind and lashing boughs

rain slanting from shifting sky

colour of winter half-dark

filling the ditches with running cold

where frost needles will grow

light the stove

and listen to the flames

singing of old tree days

and green springs

filled with bird-flutter

chimney-wind echoes hollow

among the bricks

tree-wind rattles rain from wet boughs

and the solemn tweeting

of chaffinches