There’s nothing like a good summer thunderstorm to set the hairs on your arm on end. When the dark night sky flashes bright with lightning you know you’re alive.
For this issue’s photo prompt we present just such a scene. Your challenge is to pen an original poem or two in response to this dark and stormy night. Leave your best efforts in the comment box below and the tinywords editorial team will share the best of the best in tinywords 18.2, which is due out in late September.
Keep in mind, we will continue to accept regular submissions for the next issue (issue 18.2) through the end of August at our Submit page.
Thanks for dropping by and for sharing your poems.
late power outage
Andersen’s Little Match Girl
cuts away her strings
Alan Summers
monsoon summer
another dark day
inside
Those dark days, no light in the house, awful!
lightning strikes
no room at the barn
for a tawny owl
Or a Brown Owl. :-)
tiny house nation –
lightning penetrates the darkness
in a zigzag way.
Ah, the TV series. In Britain we have 'George Clarke's Amazing Spaces' plus he has a separate series about sheds.
fire and water
a primal combination
a hidden frog croaks
I remember in the downpours this, when I lived in a Queenslander house (Australia):
sudden rainstorm
the queenslander’s plumbing
reverberates with frogs
Alan Summers
Anthology: Azami Special Edition ed. & ill. Alan Summers (Japan 1997)
Collection: sundog haiku journal: an australian year (sunfast press 1997 reprinted 1998)
p.s.
I don't know if you can see an edit option but I wonder about instead of:
fire and water
a primal combination
a hidden frog croaks
Maybe:
fire and water
a primal combination
of hidden frog croaks
So that you have a fragment and phrase?
Just a thought.
Thank you. Lovely idea.
wartime?s stormy night
my mother?s face lit by a
sudden gun barrage
Oh gosh! My mother barely told me anything. My father only two or three things, and only one of them a truly horrific experience:
my father's war
a story of the dark
collecting its own
Alan Summers
Presence issue #55 2016
distant thunder
loneliness roars
in my ear
Wonderful!
Thanks, Alan.
Very effective, if rather sad :)
I am glad the sadness came through. The photo reminded me of an Andrew Wyeth painting – Christina’s World.
storm clouds
all I can do is sit here
and watch
for just a moment
enlightened
then the veil drops again
Rain
frightening lightning
runoff
lightening flash
the old barn stands alone
in the meadow
Just for fun, as it's previously published etc…
heat lightning
the rain on the grass
reflects each strike
Alan Summers
1st Prize The Liverpool Virtual Book Fair Twitter Haiku Contest 2014
(part of the International Festival of Business)
Accepted later:
tinywords ISSUE 14.2 | 12 NOVEMBER 2014
beautiful
the loneliness
of a single old age
distant lightning
thunderclouds…
lightening flashes
through the empty barn
Do you mean 'lightning' or lightening?
Congrats on your SECOND PRIZE haiku for the 2018 Creatrix Prize, brilliant!
Oops and thanks Alan!
Alan corrected me on the very same thing several years ago, Rachel!
Yes, many congrats.
thanks Marion…and glad I'm not alone !
:) :) :)
thunder clouds
a warning bark
from the black dog
Well done!
Thanks!
I really like this!
thank you!
approaching thunder
our dogs ears
listen up
delightful
Porch candle quivers
The oldies still play and I sing
Through thunder and static
shattered dreams
it took lightning
for me to see you
abandoned
each downpour
a brush with death
summer doldrums . . .
the sudden roar
of thunder
not yet
the boom of muse
but a crack
stifling heat . . .
the sky breaks
its silence
For an instant
There was nowhere left
For shadows
Brilliant! (No pun intended…)
approaching thunder
our dog's ears
listen up
(grammar correction, oops)
lightning strike
small faces brighten
at the window
advancing storm
we watch it
on our smartphones
Lucy Whitehead
I really like this – great social comment!
sunset glow
a soldier hardens himself
for the night to come
an old barn accepts its fate lightning strike
thunder and lightning
first love still standing
prairie lightning
the old cabin
remains stoic
weathered barn
endures prairie lightning
townspeople cringe
weathered barn
survives prairie lightning
townspeople cringe
thunderclap
my firstborn
finds his voice
Ah that first cry of indignation from a healthy newborn. This brought me a feeling of joy, in spite of the photo!
Joy and wonder; that is what I was trying to convey – thank you!
Correction … thanks Alan!
thunderclouds…
lightning flashes
through the empty barn
hunkered in the bunker a rain of rockets
a wrong turn
on a lonely road
lightning points the way
ghosts howl
lightning strikes
the old barn
nothing but
the sound of thunder…
his last breath
what happens when_I repress_all that anger_
Threatening clouds build
Lightning rents the roiling sky
A wild summer storm.
The old wooden barn
Leaning into the prairie wind
Distant lightning strikes
Storm on the prairie
Bright lightning and driving rain
Where do creatures hide?
Lighting in grey clouds
Little barn on the prairie
Dark and stormy night.
the scent of electrified earth turning cold
a blue pail
full of rain
all the horses
This is really two separate poems – the first being a single line haiku.
incoming storm
sheltering in place
a prairie wolf
********
warrior spirits
restoring harmony between
here and beyond
battered barn
an illusion of safety
lightening strikes twice
Sorry, it incorrectly autocorrected. Should be:
battered barn
an illusion of safety
lightning strikes twice
Very much enjoy #43
Very much like #43
dark brooding tension snaps
igniting swollen air
nature breathes a sigh
distant thunder
inside the open garage
smells like Dad
I love this.
flash of lightning
a field mouse takes refuge
in the abandoned cabin
lightning on the horizon
the earth and sky
join forces
from a sound sleep
lightning streaks and thunderbolts
terror ?til dawn
late night
enlightenment
summer storm
summer storm
his snoring
competes with the thunder
a streak of light
across a prairie
of faces
sunburnt grass sways to
echoes of distant thunder
grandfather's bones
that old barn
all that remains
This hauntingly beautiful poem defied me to be content with a single reading. Like the echoes of distant thunder, it reverberates with the memories of the distant and not so distant past. Not so long ago the grass, new and green, was swayed by fresh winds; perhaps the grandfather was young when the barn was new. You now memorialize their remaining bones and dry, aged timbers. I’m reminded of the line from a song, “long ago and far away”. Your echoing images will long stay with me. So very well written m.! I look forward to reading more of your work.
thunderstorm—
the thrill
of being afraid
on the porch
commiserating with a sky
tearing itself in half
never too old
for a game of flashlight tag
with fate
middle of nowhere
only the lightning here
knows how to leave
buzzing
of a mosquito-
thunder night
highway-
in a flash
sunflowers
Angiola Inglese-Italy
I apologize, but I put like an error to my comment, and then another trying to take it off
angiola inglese
buzzing
tunder
lightning strike…
throwing away another
lottery ticket
*
lightning flash…
the widening pupil
of the moon
*
lightning bolt…
how dare
god
in the tall grass
the quail tense
and wait
after the ache
and shudder
your hand in mine
in the tall grass
the quail tense
and wait
playing poker
even further
the other one
heat lightning
the weight of the world
crashing down
deafening crescendo
a thunderbolt
splits the night
clearing the air
a raging storm passes
from my father's eyes
our old barn
reduced to splinters
the tramp who sought refuge there
approaching storm
a one one thousandths
of silent prayer
lightning
our world
on a spit
Crazy, true, striking, direct image; feels like the world is being roasted and eaten by some force that is relishing the experience…though I'd never have said that before reading your apt poem. Lovely and lyric, too: the o's and r's of "our world"…the n's and t's in lightning echoed in "on a spit". Beautiful ku.
Thanks so much William – I reckon we're all implicated in that force to a greater or lesser degree…..
yellow jacket nest
we discover each other
sumultaneously
her flashing eyes
and explosive laughter
attract all men—
I would tell them to seek shelter
but why rain on her parade?
end of summer
the growing fear
of what’s inside
finding myself
in shadow-shelter
hiss of sweet rain
My word rocks
as the sky splits
clouds are torn asunder
the following brightness
burns the last of my fear
a leap of joy
through my ancestors' hearts
summer lightning
flashes of anger
cooled by
summer rain
summer romance
a storm forming
in the distance
jagged sky
kids pedal their bikes
faster
summer storm
sudden power outage
… SERENITY!
flicker of light
darkness comes inside
with the storm
Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia
lightning!
a creek in the sky
over dry earth
without warning
a thunderstorm of grief
builds in my heart
thunderstorm
electrical magic
fills the night sky
wild night wringing the rain from our thermals
a rumble of thunder
breaks the silence
between us
Warning: Clichés may
Retain their power
To strike
Purple prose
Purple rain
Snapchat filter
It was a dark night
When Snoopy lost Sparky.
The Ace thunders on.
the night touched by a gleam of white hilltop accolade
the cigarette stub
he threw away
summer thunderstorm
gorged with raindrops
black migraine of thunderstorm
tight and fit to burst
heat lightning
the way the cabin
holds the silence
heat lightning
the sudden scent
of wild mint
Chaorite fills the sky
Opalescent zaps strike us
You want to see more
the sky wracks open
to crashing thunder
the nurse whispers
stillborn
lightning strikes—
I stop growing new excuses
for old fears
quiet at home
thunderstorms outside
for a change
Rashmi Vesa
lightening
I just noticed
father patched the roof
on and off
lights in the abandoned house
night thunderstorm
thunderstorm
the door shuts
against the wind
***
lightning
a bird twitches
at my stare
My leg out of bed
The drapes twist with the monsoon
The lightning shines through
fragmented woman
waiting for a lightning strike
to go home through
lightning whip
the field barn's moment
flight or fight
a split-second lightning flash
caught in a picture
stays forever
lifeless countryside
lightning charges down
to energize
life in countryside
completes the full circle
when thunderstorms arrive
A.J. Anwar
Jakarta, Indonesia
A refinement on the earlier version, if allowed, should read:
a split-second lightning bolt
caught in a picture
flashes forever
light through the crack —
a barn left to fall
stands on its own
thunderstorm at seventeen
waiting
for sparks to fly
—————-
weathering the late
summer storm
without her
instant accident
– like a lighting bolt
… now he?s an angel
for a moment
what once was bright
made brighter
Summer days depart the planes.
Lightening strikes less often -but autumn
thunder wakes within the waves of wheat
a trembling like no spring that came before.
lightning storm?
between the bolts I count
the breaths of my newborn
barn hesitates
between a flash
and the dark sun
fire in the sky
our stormy past
haunts us
Really like this, KJ, 'haunting'.
thunderclouds
a cold wind
ruffles my hair
.
.
clouds gather
a far wind
slams the door
summer sighs a storm
cool waters
soothing concrete
–
under this swollen thunderclap
i am only a raindrop
–
asleep you frown
at storms that waking
you'll shrug off
–
by @haikurkbride
he looks up in awe
at the storm and he
knows the earth knows how he feels
night storm
through the empty lamp
passing shadows
sitting on the roof
to see lightning
walk
the face-off
a barn-owl in the window
looks at you