THUNDERSTORMS: THE FACTS
Forget King Lear out on the heath. Dismiss
Frankenstein’s creature too. Let’s stick to the science:
the hot and humid air rising and rising;
the dew point; the djinn released from the jar.
Suddenly all that latent energy
turns kinetic, violent, electric;
and clouds with the shape and colour of anvils
hurl down shafts of rain.
No wonder the heart quickens, the eyes dilate.
Once it was gods that we saw, capricious and scary,
and even now the mind, the imagination,
will escape from the isobars and the moving fronts
to watch in awe, standing at the window
willing the sky to greater ferocity.
Half consciously we let the moment
liberate our private demons.
© John Stevens 2010
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Love this, John – I’m a real fan of combining the scientific and the concrete with the imagined and unseen. I especially related to the line ‘willing the sky to greater ferocity’; it can never be too loud and brilliant for me. Super.
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By: gonecycling on 12 October, 2010
at 14:51
very hard to forget the good King in a storm.
storms humble all of us.
nice
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By: wherearetheheros on 14 March, 2011
at 02:20
Many thanks for stopping by and reading this.
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By: John Stevens on 14 March, 2011
at 18:37
“Half consciously we let the moment
liberate our private demons.”
magnificent
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By: Evelyn on 15 March, 2011
at 17:36
Many thanks – I’m glad you think it worked.
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By: John Stevens on 15 March, 2011
at 19:40