☀️ The Daily Boost #809
Rise to the light and fall again
The Daily Boost (published weekdays) is one of the newsletters of The Raft, the online community of author Phyllis Cole-Dai. We Rafters ride the river of life buoyed by music, poetry, and other arts, along with open spiritual practice. Most everything here is free, but patrons (paid subscribers) get some special perks because Phyllis is extra grateful for their support. Sign up here:
THE SELF-PLAYING INSTRUMENT OF WATER
Alice Oswald
It is the story of the falling rain
To turn into a leaf and fall again
It is the secret of a summer shower
To steal the light and hide it in a flower
And every flower a tiny tributary
That from the ground flows green and momentary
Is one of water’s wishes and this tale
Hangs in a seed head smaller than my thumbnail
If only I a passerby could pass
As clear as water through a plume of grass
To find the sunlight hidden at the tip
Turning to seed a kind of lifting raindrip
Then I might know like water how to balance
The weight of hope against the light of patience
Water which is so raw so earthy-strong
And lurks in cast iron tanks and leaks along
Drawn under gravity towards my tongue
To cool and fill the pipe-work of this song
Which is the story of the falling rain
That rises to the light and falls again
(My thanks to Alice Oswald, via Poetry International.)
The Gentle Nudge
TODAY (THURSDAY): Poetry Pick-Me-Up (Zoom, 12:00-1:00PM Central, at this link)
SEPTEMBER 9: “Riffing on The Singing Stick”—my online book bash. I’d love for you to come! Details and RSVP here.
This grabbed me: “Then I might know like water how to balance The weight of hope against the light of patience”
Same couplet resonated in me:
Then I might know like water how to balance
The weight of hope against the light of patience
And the rhyming works, as it supports rather than competes with the imagery and the sense of the poem.