Puddles & Fishes

Puddles Painting by Fred Eckman (prints available here)

Puddles and Fishes

When the rain falls,

Faster than the Earth can absorb it.

Puddles collect in all the low places

And record the impact of raindrops

When the winds lift and blow

Raindrops make circles in circles, overlapping

At the boundary between the pool and the air

As the storm casts itself hard against the ground.

When the storm goes,

Everywhere left behind along the roads.

In all those low spots – little pools lie

Serene and still, clear and cold

When the sun reappears

The puddles shimmer cheerfully

And when I look into them, I half expect

To find little fishes swimming there.

© 2014 by Tom King

Rainstorm

A Haiku by Tom King

It comes in a rush.
God bathes the dusty city.
Umbrellas blossom.

EXPLANATION: In church today we were talking about how God wants to bless us and sometimes we hide from those blessings be cause we want to avoid the discomfort that might come with receiving them.  I had the city picture in my mind and I imagined a rainstorm over crowds of shoppers and pedestrians. When the rain came, the umbrellas began to pop open as people tried not to get wet. I like to raise my face to the sky and enjoy the first rush of the shower. I though about God washing the dust from the city streets and buildings with the rain. The picture of God bathing the city and people raising their protective "blossoms" just came next. I might have put this more obscurely, but the haiku form demands a very rigid economy of words. That's why haiku is such a wonderful teaching tool for poets. It makes you write more strongly and with fewer words.  The picture is of a friend of mine, Steve Marshall, a guy who knew something about rain and the need for a good wash now and again..........and for umbrellas.

(c) 2009