Catching Particles

Catching Particles

Google Image

 

splintered wood from
a lightning struck tree
catching particles
of afternoon sun

like reflections
of another self
transformed in
Alice’s looking-glass

catching particles
of colored prisms
the waterfall dances
over time’s precipice

& the dragonfly is seen
catching particles
of each ray of sun
season of summer done

© September 2013
Renee Espriu

A Sliver of Moon

Sliver of Moon
Google Image

last night I awoke to
large angry raindrops
as tempestuous as a
cold winter’s hail

as thunder rolled
across the night sky
as though trying to
knock over tenpins

amidst lightning strikes
only noticed as the
dark bedroom curtains
began casting shadows

but tonight setting high
in the night sky rests
a sliver of new moon
between gray pillow clouds

© August 2013
Renee Espriu

Distant Rumbling

Image by Illustrator John Howe

riding within the ‘so called’
safety of the car
grey clouds hanging in
thick air as though
calling

with the promise of
lightning strikes
sky electric
followed by the distant
rumbling of thunder
clapping

bird song has left the
air currents
relishing the safety of
leafy boughs or
twig filled nests

brings back to my mind
a girl standing in
awe in front of a
living room window
no fear

watching the light show
waiting for the far
away sound of someone
bowling?

could it be the friends of
Rip Van Winkle playing
nine-pins in the
Catskill Mountains…
maybe

her imagination carried
adrift with glory
lightning strikes on
a summer’s afternoon
a childhood story

© July 2012 Renee Espriu

We have been having some odd weather lately as has been most of the entire earth and thunder and lightning storms, some without rain, (prevalent and common where I grew up in California) now here in Washington. While out today the sky was brilliant and I thought of one of my favorite stories “Rip Van Winkle” written by author Washington Irving in 1819. As a child when I looked at the sky lit up by lightning my mind just knew it was the men Rip met in the Catskills playing nine-pins. I never feared but as a child that is so much a part of growing up.