Stormlight
Rain-giver, hail-maker, tornado-farmer,
May's black hammer mesocyclone bouquet
falls into the world;
a twist and wrench
of chaos-stacked air that knows
only one gamble,
hanging its fate,
its otherworld gate
over wheatfields and wiseacres
it will strip down to skin
in a boiling of sky,
where one will be wrecked
and another spared
by the luck
of the drawing wind.
After the storm,
the crash gasp flash drama,
light is softened,
sky-wrapped in puff-clouds
like a newborn in crochet.
Trees stir and push
to their wild/calm lover.
Birds streak back in sepia
down to a world
neither colored
nor monochrome.
We ride these last days
between daggers,
between fear and relief,
between the holy
and the unholy,
the quick and the dead
watching domestic
disputes of drunk giants
from a mousehole of hope.
May 2022
posted for earthweal's
Mesocyclone: A storm-scale region of
rotation, typically around 2-6 miles in diameter and often found in the
right rear flank of a supercell (or often on the eastern, or front,
flank of a High Pressure storm). The circulation of a mesocyclone covers an area
much larger than the tornado that may develop within it. Properly used,
mesocyclone is a radar term; it is defined as a rotation signature
appearing on Doppler radar that meets specific criteria for magnitude,
vertical depth, and duration.~NOAA Weather
Images: Binger, Oklahoma F4 tornado of 22 May 1981. Courtesy of National Severe Storms Laboratory, NOAA Public Domain via wikimedia commons
Stormlight, May 2, 2022 ©joyannjones
As long as you stay safe.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you weathered the storm, which sounds fierce indeed. I love, especially, from "We ride these last days" on, especially that mousehole of hope, which is about all we have left, it seems.
ReplyDeletehave handled earthquakes, including being in San Francisco in 89 for Loma Prieta that shut down the World Series. I don't think I want to see a tornado
ReplyDeleteand yes, mousehole of hope is about the size of it
This is so powerful. The mousehole of hope is a great phrase - so small, such a tiny hope to cling on to. On a technical note, the centring of the lines gives this an almost concrete form.
ReplyDeleteOnly an Oklahoman can sing of tornadoes like a hedge-Dorothy, channeling their maleficence in the language of a Navaho (first line), botanist-cum-meteorologist (lines 2-3) and Norn (rest of the stanza) who sees otherworld openings and wheeling Fate dealing doors all at once. Whew. But the world’s softness is magnified by their passing, a state of gentle grace “sky-wrapped in puff-clouds / like a newborn in crochet.” Such wild opposites can only augur “last days” of “riding” “between daggers” of “the holy and unholy”: both the monster size of it (thanks to Anthropocene excess) beheld much like “watching domestic / disputes of drunk giants / from a mousehole of hope.” Maybe the gods are angry at your state legislature and send abortions like this back to Oklahoma’s doorstep. Or maybe we’ve been taken to Putin’s Oz. Such spirits must be praised in the language of terror and wonder, like this. A magnificent brew, Hedge, really tops.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, B. This one took a bit of wrestling and re-writing, but the voice was roaring so, as you say, what're ya gonna do? Oklahoma's gods have been punishing sodbusters for a very long time, in one way or another, but no punishment is too harsh for the evil clowns now in power.
DeleteSuch a wild rush of description, I was taken up in it -- felt the force of the tornado.
ReplyDeleteWow! You really captured the ominous mood of the gathering storm, both literal and metaphorical - I loved this!
ReplyDeleteJoy, how are you? I'm sorry it's taken me so long to visit. And what good stuff there is to read here :-) This is simply wonderful! I love the sonic crashing sounds throughout this poem. I've never seen a mesocyclone as we don't really get them where I am but you paint such a vivid picture. To be honest, it also made me think of bombshells, but I guess they're not so dissimilar. As always, there are too many good lines to quote. But if I had to pick some favourites, these:
ReplyDelete"tornado-farmer"
"chaos-stacked air"
"sky-wrapped in puff-clouds
like a newborn in crochet" (this also brought to mind that rather dark nursery rhyme "rock-a-bye baby...)
and the last stanza:
"watching domestic
disputes of drunk giants
from a mouse-hole of hope"
<3
Thank you so much, Sunra, so good to see you here and read your thoughts and feedback. I appreciate every one. have been having a difficult patch, but I hope to be back out and making the rounds soon. Forgive me for not keeping up with all your excellent poems in April for Poetry Month.
DeleteSo sorry for my late reply, Joy! I always forget to check back. I'm sorry to hear you've been having a difficult patch, I hope you're feeling better now? And by the way, please don't ever feel the need to read my poems, honestly. You are not obliged to in any way. I would come and read yours regardless, I love your poems. I wish you a great rest of the weekend :-) <3
Deletejoy, this poem is fricking brilliant.
ReplyDelete"Birds streak back in sepia
down to a world
neither colored
nor monochrome."
i'm looking at that kind of sky right now, we've had storms all day and that describes the sky perfectly
"We ride these last days
between daggers,
between fear and relief,
between the holy
and the unholy,"
love the power in those lines. joy, i don't go back and read your poems out of any sense of obligation. when i started writing again, when i rejoined the world of internet "poetry", you were the first person i looked for, cause i love what you write. if you had books i would buy them and read them over and over like i do ferlinghetti, or corso, or issa... just saying. and that's why i go back to read what i missed
Thanks Phillip. I'm glad it's not an obligation. I hate those, and the people who make you feel that way. Storms have always fascinated me and made me feel alive and well, but sometimes ours do get frightening. But it's an honest fear, live or die, and you know where you stand. BTW, Shay put a book together of our stuff once, it's on Amazon, called Gemini Scorpio Capricorn. It's all my older stuff, and a lot of hers and of a friend of hers. I think it's still available. I'm very flattered by you wanting to include me in your reading list. You are always on mine.
Delete