Poetry & Other Writing

The Disappearance of Poems in Rain

Honored and excited to learn that my poem “The Disappearance of Poems in Rain” was published in the December 11, 2017 edition of Typishly. Many thanks to Jon, founder and editor, for choosing my work for publication. He said “Your poems are unhurried, calming, measured. Like breathing, in and out.”

The Disappearance of Poems in Rain

I

I drew a brief haiku with one wet finger on a windowsill,

then rain washed it all away, the drops of water slowly clouding

its calligraphy. Ephemeral as the scent of cedar trees,

or the spice of woodsmoke drifting through a winter landscape.

II

We climbed up to the attic, windows dusted with dark memories

and age, their surfaces a chalkboard for some verses melting

into muddy ribbons as raindrops beat against the stanzas, erasing

what was written, the memory of those words already fading.

III

I had four bedroom walls to paint a rainy blue, but first added a sonnet

with the smallest brush, moving through the slanting light in the empty

echoing room, and the solvent’s scent, and standing in the middle, reading

it aloud, and rolling all the words away, up to the blue tape’s edges.

IV

You spoke something in another room. I heard your words as water,

maybe clouds. I listened, but could only hear the orchids growing

in their pots next to the kitchen window. We who are disappearing

into distance have become these words, washed away by rain.