Friday, March 6, 2015

Sideways


Toril “Smells Like Rain”

Winter moans elsewhere ---but here
within me,
yesterdays roam,
panicky.

Like spring rain. Staccato.

My poems are wet ash.
My skin, sand through hourglass.

I make
for shelter,
a grain too late---

caught
in clouds of least favorable reflection.
And though I'm determined to at least pace them,

I know
I can never outrun
the rain.


© 2015 Jennifer Wagner


For Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Art with Toril.


21 comments:

Brian Miller said...

nice...intriguing link you make between you skin and time...
and no, rain will always find us...
its best to learn to dance within it..

brudberg said...

The skin and the time through hour glass.. tied to the rain... some great contrasts here .. and as usual the best quality poetry.. truly wonderful

Other Mary said...

What fresh, lovely images - the staccato rain, wet ash poems, and of course your skin as sand in an hourglass. I'm so glad I got to read this.

Grace said...

Love the line breaks specially the opening lines ~

Admiring this part too:

My poems are wet ash.
My skin, sand through hourglass.

Debi Swim said...

I make
for shelter,
a grain too late---
This whole thing is just lovely.

Susan said...

Always a grain too late--though wet with rain--promising, perhaps, a very long life!

Wendy Bourke said...

Beautiful . . . those wistful contemplations about the inevitability of rain and that, try as we might, we cannot outrun it.

Just recently, I was talking to a friend going through a particularly unhappy passage and she remarked: all I ever wanted was a simply, pleasant life - sunny days . . . they come, but never stay. You've caught that sad reality that - at one point or another - all of us are faced with. Your words: eloquent and moving, Jennifer.

Susie Clevenger said...

"yesterdays roam panicky" I feel that one. Great, creative piece!

grapeling said...

that third stanza.... ~

Vandana Sharma said...

Sometimes this rain leaves us never.............

Kerry O'Connor said...

Ah, this is wonderful. i love your metaphoric language.

Anonymous said...

It's refreshing to come to terms with both the rain and one's past.

C.C. said...

"a grain too late"--yes! that is what it's like. This whole thing is full of lovely phrasing.

Jody Lee Collins said...

Jennifer, your metaphors continue to blow me away....

Fireblossom said...

This is marvelous.

Namrata said...

My poems are wet ash, My skin, sand through hourglass. I loved these lines. They are true and inevitable. Someday we are going to turn into a handful of sand. :)

Magyar said...

Grand_!
__We know... we can never outrun the rain, but we will forever try. _m

janetld said...

Thank you for another relatable, wise poem. Yes, yesterdays certainly can roam inside us at times.

Hannah said...

Jennifer, "My skin, sand through hourglass." Wow! Great write. :)

Audrey Howitt aka Divalounger said...

This is just wonderful Jennifer! It just has everything going for it--I stopped trying to outrun the rain--

Lisa A. Williams said...

Gorgeous Jennifer! I love "I can never outrun the rain."