Tag Archives: spring storms

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Spring and Summer Thunderstorms – Haiku and Reflection

the thunderheads like
football players line the sky
the seasons first hit

In this strange “sprinter” and “sprummer,” which is the best way I can describe the winter and spring we have had, we have already had some thunderstorms, as news stories of deadly carnage across the Midwest attest to. Yet what I am trying to get at in this haiku is a very particular type of spring or summer morning when one wakes up and, though the sun may be shining and it may even be hot, one gets the sense that there is a good chance that thunderstorms may be popping up all day long. Indeed, one corner of the western sky may already be a mass of dark brooding thunderheads with muffled peals of thunder in the distance. There a couple of scenes in the movie Twister which capture this bright morning calm before the storms quite well.

I am not sure today will be that sort of day, but some rumbling of thunder in the middle of the night got me thinking. Oh, and I am thankful that the past few weeks have been more reminiscent of a normal St. Louis spring with cooler temperatures and even some soaking rains. Now I am a little more ready to bear the heat.

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Good Friday Haiku – St. Louis Tornado / Storms – April 22, 2011

church in a basement,
tornado sirens wail; we
are not forsaken

the communion loaf
is scored, grooves like lash marks baked
into remembrance

one body, one flesh,
making it home we find a
city blown by wrath
__________

The congregants at Grace and Peace Fellowship did have to go to the basement to finish the last half of their service unplugged and huddled around tables.

There turned out to be no damage in the immediate area, but coming home I found out about the damage at the airport and other areas. I also learned that a friend and his wife, who is 7 months pregnant, lost their home. And two dear young women from my own church, who lost their mother this past year and have had more than their share of trouble, also lost their home. Please pray for these two families and others who have lost so much.

Amidst it all, I do believe that Good Friday is still indeed good, and that because of it, because Christ was forsaken on the cross, we need not be, in life or in death.