You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or the silence after lightening before it says
its names—and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles—you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head—
that’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.
~ William Stafford, “Assurance” in The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you The Hammock Papers
- Photo: DK. Daybreak / Rain. September 10, 2020. 6:00 am. 68° F. At Cove Island, Stamford, CT
Live & Learn 
Oh, this speaks to me! There is nothing so hypnotic as rain, whether falling softly or pounding down. Have had *quite* a few symphonies here of late….
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Hypnotic. Soothing. That’s it Lori.
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I love this so much
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Thanks Beth. Me too.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Love the look of autumn and the sound of rain … ” You turn your head – that’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.” – William Stafford, “Assurance” in The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems.
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Beautiful…
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It is.
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Working on the shutter speed are you?
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Laughing. All camera. Not photographer.
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I don’t get shutter speed at all. Of course the last time I used it was back when I used old style Nikon.
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Me too!
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“may the rains fall soft upon your fields”, and dreams…
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Yes!
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I love the rain. And this is so beautiful.
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It is. To write and think like that. Wow.
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No kidding. Way above my pay grade, so to speak…
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Oh be still my pounding heart.
No! Wait! Let me dance to the thrum of my pounding heart in the rain pouring down.
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Smiling. Always so enjoy what you think and feel when you read my posts and then articulate it. Amazing. A miracle.
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Why Thank you kind sir! ❤
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We Pray for Rain… since May we’ve had 1/10 of an inch…the Unchecked Fires Consume, we’ve had loss of life, communities ,wildlife & their habitat, we mourn…the length of the Mountain Range (hundreds of miles) and one fire advance to the Ocean where they have evacuations, too. Our air quality is 451 hazardous to all stay inside unless they evacuate us, the evacuations continue…they had to move a safe heaven evacuation center yesterday as this fire advances…Usually a fire this size has 1,500 or more firefighters along with lots of air support …they have 209 fire-fighters and today they will have some Nat. Guard fire support…thankfully the winds have died down and will shift direction today…the smoke has prevented the temp. from the 95-100 expected down about 20 degrees lower…
We have power momentarily (they will turn off the system without notice, as they have been doing to save lives & to not spark more fires)…our fire started and in just a day & 1/2 it consumed over 164 square miles… We need more firefighters in Washington, Oregon and California, to save Lives, property and wildlife habitat, our water shed thus our drinking water, we’ve had birds come in early from the mountains, we are 17 miles one way to a big National Forest & 17 miles the other way to another big Nat. Forest …Rain, Rain, Pray for Rain…thank God for the Heroes who have saved the lives of people & animals & the every day citizens who have picked up strangers fleeing & injured pets along the roads /// /// years ago we had one fire in part of the state that consume 1 million acres…it was thankfully contained in the Wilderness area…we’d hike & camped there when we were in our 20’s we sat on a ledge looking at the Ocean turned our head looked south and stared at a snow capped mountain…eyewitness’s to beautiful, majestic miracle…
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It is so scary Christie. Here’s for Rain.
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I pray for rain Christie and feel my heart swimming in tears. I wish my tears, and the tears of the millions who are also crying for so much devastation could become your rain.
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Louise, thank you so much…I left a comment to you further down the page…
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It’s coming. Soon we’ll be wishing for sunshine again – the warm kind. Right now it’s sure nice to get some rain, as long as it knows when to stop.
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With you Anneli. With you.
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What is raining down here is forest fire Ash…a few hundred reinforcement personnel are coming today, thank God…we’ve dealt with volcanic Ash, in the past several times…I want Rain, Rain, Rain…
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Such a shame. Here’s a prayer for rain in NW
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Louise, thank you so much your reply means a lot to me…the air quality worsens…the fires consume…the wind has shifted a bit will take a few days for that, to move in and make a difference…half a million people!!! have been evacuated in my state with more to come…
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Louise, this is still fresh on my mind…it was 3 or 4 weeks ago today, that our neighbors home caught fire when the parents weren’t home (Dad at work, Mom doing errands)…I sheltered their children, dispensed hugs, beverages, cookies, Kleenex and helpful words…there are a great family and the oldest is a new teenager & very responsible…it was so scary for the children, poor babies…another neighbor called the fire department & another grabbed the hose and make sure the children were out, he is a hero…he saved the whole tinder dried neighborhood from going up in flames…the work is progressing on their home and they will be back soon…thank you again for your heartfelt thoughtful concern…
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