Sunday, November 18, 2012

Squall - A Magpie Tale

Squall, painted by Andrew Wyeth, 1986
from Tess at Mag 144 *click here*

The Squall

I stand in the door
taking in the weather change
still sure what to do,
how bad it will get,
part of me here rejoicing
at the coming blow,
remembering how I
said we would deserve the rage
coming down the pike,
and something in me's
just pleased that you'll come undone
in God's hairy storm.

November 18, 2012 8:32 AM

In another lifetime, had I realized it was even possible, I would have been a storm chaser.

I am deeply in love with this planet in its weather extremes. Storms fill me with joy. I am somehow completely sure no bad thing can happen to me because my instinct protects me. I am aware this is insane. I don't care. It is not that the storms do not scare me because they do scare me.

The storms evoke my passion and my heart is sure there is always a way to avoid the trap. This is like in that movie where they tied themselves to the pump piping to stay in place as the tornado went over. That scene was totally right in my experience, something that could have happened to me. In myth, this is like Odysseus tying himself to the mast rather than stopping his ears as he passed the lair of the Sirens.

Of all the chaos on the planet the events that most clearly reveal the face of a transcendent but personal God are the big storms. That is what my heart says to me. I don't for a second believe this is anything but a private message to me and perhaps to some others. That the whole of mankind struggles to control acts of God as a key theme of civilization is obviously our collective destiny.

16 comments:

  1. "Howl, howl, howl, howl! O! you are men of stones: had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so that heaven's vaults should crack. She's gone for ever!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another Part of the Heath. Storm still.

    Enter LEAR and Fool.
    Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
    You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
    Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! 5
    You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
    Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
    Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
    Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
    Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once 10
    That make ingrateful man!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also love storms and the reminder that we are small in comparison to Mother Nature.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I see the world as one big endless food chain, so I go indoors when the storm rages so as not to become stormkill. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stormy weather always brings change and so, for good or for bad, it all comes to blows! I love the electric nature of it all... churning and dancing. Your poem congers up this imagery, Christopher. Your words crackle. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love dramatic skies and weather. Nice piece.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good on you, grand sentiments, reminds me of Lieutenant Dans epiphany in " forest gump" , that tale was very much a modern retelling of Odysseus, it hits me. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yup, I can relate to all this - even the possibility of being a storm chaser. The wild is seriously intoxicating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So yesterday the Pacific Northwest experienced a weather front relatively nasty. It was pretty dark at noon... and the flags were snapping sharply in the wet gale force wind.

      Delete
  9. Oh you are so right- the mystery of it- we certainly are blessed with life and storms as well...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Years ago, 1975, Isabel, partner of my colleague Carroll, was doing calligraphy and I requested a piece that still hangs in my house:

      We think it is calm here
      Or that the storm is the right size.

      Delete
  10. and something in me's
    just pleased that you'll come undone
    in God's hairy storm.

    That is exciting and so true! ha - I love your comment about us "struggling to control acts of God"...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I do so understand. Love how the Earth shows us its passions - letting us know who is really in control.

    Give me wild winds that take my breath away as I watch trees arch in its sway...

    Anna :o]

    ReplyDelete
  12. A good storm is an experience worth having. Nice poem!

    ReplyDelete

The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


Get Your Own Visitor Map!