Thoughts on poems: Rain
A fuzzy poppy bud covered with rain droplets.
Rain
by Diana Der Hovanessian,
(From Love Poems by Women, editor Wendy Mulford, 1990, p. 104)
Rain undoes the stone
unfastens grass.
Nothing is permanently
attached to bone.
Neither epoxy
not promises last.
But I keep those inflections
you telephoned to wear
with your frown on rainy days.
There is another you
I have invented from your name
and cemented to my bones forever.
let rain say nothing stays.
Here is a perfectly bookended poem. It contains thirteen lines of self-reflection. I tend to read the first and final lines as though they might reveal a hidden truth. In case there is wisdom, here is the last line: let rain say nothing stays. Any [short] poem insinuating nature (weather, months, time of year…) catches me. It is part of the draw to haiku (primarily Basho’s). Matthew Sweet’s “Nothing Lasts” is a great follow-up to this poem.
