I found the opening phrase of this poem in an old notebook – but the lines after that are all new.  Some days editing and reshaping comes so easily.  A long hiatus makes cutting so much easier.     

I have days where rhyme is on my mind and that’s the time to attempt poems that require them.   I haven’t had one of those for a while, so I’m not going near rhyming forms in my poetry challenge, not yet.  

Word Rain is over on the ever rippling on Ripple Poetry Blog.

It’s hard work
sowing word seeds
that don’t want to grow
into story grain
but brace against it
waiting for rain’s inspiration.

Rain pitter patters
on the ground
sings out
the beginnings of stories
invites
the creation of metaphors.

But rain laughs
at its cliches
as couples take shelter
only to discover
they’re in love
& teases
as droughts end
& country folk run out to taste & dance

Rain brings floods,
sends people to the tops of rooves
into arks
with animals two by two

But when you smell
petrichor you understand &
find your unique story

Those memories
take you to a story place

There a man in a canoe crosses the  river
of what once was a road
& a smiling woman waits for him
in a blue raincoat.

You have found your beginning.

By June Perkins