consolation in each raindrop the sea

10 Responses

  1. Marjorie Buettner Says:

    very nice!

  2. Alan Summers Says:

    consolation in each raindrop the sea

    —Stella Pierides

    Consolation
    in each raindrop

    in each raindrop
    the sea

    There can be consolation in each raindrop
    e.g.

    the rain
    almost a friend
    this funeral

    Alan Summers
    First publication credits: Azami #28 (Japan, 1995)
    Anthology: The Temple Bell Stops: Contemporary Poems of Grief, Loss and Change (Modern English Tanka Press 2012)

    And inter-relationships in nature, and how we can hopefully "inter-rely" on each other as in the rain off the sea that feeds the clouds that feeds the earth that feeds the food crops and much more.

    But when that cycle gets corrupted, when things break down, where do we find consolation?

    The sea is often seen as a womb, going back.

    I'm not saying that the haiku is about this, but it's certainly powerful enough for me, and a journey into what I perceive as possible layers of understanding and perception.

    Alan

  3. Frances Sinderwahl Says:

    Alan, how can the Anthology be purchased?
    moonlace

  4. Alan Summers Says:

    Dear Frances,

    Alas it doesn't seem available anymore, even on Abebooks, really sorry about that. A very successful anthology but no second print run it seems.

    warm regards,

    Alan

  5. Peter Newton Says:

    we are all part of a larger

    that's what this poem says to me

    "consolation in each raindrop the sea"

    and recognizing this shared smallness

    is a comfort

  6. Ellen Grace Olinger Says:

    Dear Stella, Beautiful. We've had rain here, which our Lake Michigan needed.

  7. Theresa C. Says:

    This is wonderful, Stella. I see the sea in those raindrops… our origins

    Theresa C.

  8. Don Says:

    Love it, Stella … thank you, Don at Lilliput

  9. haikuapprentice Says:

    This is perfect, Stella!

    The ambiguity of the linear arrangement of words creates images which cycle round in my mind – a visceral experience of the water cycle itself which begins and ends always in the sea.

    But that opening word – "consolation". Ah, there you take us out of nature, into metaphysics and spirituality.

    A truly wonderful poem! Thank you for sharing it.

    Strider

  10. Lorin Ford Says:

    consolation in each raindrop the sea

    Yes, all individual, each containing the whole. Separate, yet not. In each teardrop the sea, too.
    Nicely done Stella.

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