It is early spring here in Atlanta, and nothing is usual about it. The weather is weird, blowing from hot to cold, and tonight we are to expect freezing temps. Unusual for the middle of April.
Spring brings unsettled and dramatic weather across our nation. Tornadoes are the usual fare and this morning, the winds have picked up, blowing great gusts. The wind chimes relay the power of the wind and I jump with their frenzy. It is an unsettled time, this spring, but also one of excitement. Nature is in command, and our petty concerns here down on earth, those things that drive us to distraction, fade in the face of Nature’s power. The bellows of wind, the monstrous groans of limb on limb of huge oaks and pecans, well, these things capture our attention. Life is played out in its fullness with spring storms.
Lady Nyo
SPRING STORM
The wind howls tonight
Races round eaves,
Disturbs the haunts in the attic,
Forces wind chimes
Into a metal hambone frenzy
The clash of harmony grates
On ears, on nerves
no sleep for this night.
There is death to the west
Fear in the vanguard.
It is springtime,
No gentle embrace
Just a blaze of destruction, despair.
Sanctuary
Is far down on the ground,
Deep as a cellar
Deep as the grave.
The moon above,
Sickly green sphere
Is in on the game.
The dogs howl
A Greek chorus
Echoing their primal fear
Over the landscape.
Each moan of wind
Heralds the apocalypse,
My eyes squeeze shut
Against grating of branches,
The rattle of panes
As I grasp for sanity
In an insane night.
I ride out the storm,
Dawn breaks,
The silence complete,
The earth placid and calm
As if the night before
Only a nightmare-
And I ridden from sleep
To the usual ground.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2014,
from ‘Pitcher of Moon”
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