thunderstorms

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After the Storm – Flora Edition – Forest Park, Missouri

Last week I created a post of pictures of a bunch of animals after a storm in Forest Park. During the same soggy walk, I also took lots of pictures of the plant life of the park in a light drizzle after the storm. There are two pictures of a felled branch and the tree from whence it came.

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“today the air hangs” and “out from the breaking” – summer haiku

today the air hangs
dense as an asthmatic lung
waiting for cool breath

out from the breaking
clouds, rain-poured coolness; wet leaves
as green as eden
__________

I really rather wanted to continue the asthmatic metaphor into the second haiku, but could not manage it, and so changed it up, though I imagine Eden had no place for asthmatic lungs, as mine were a bit today. These days I am having a hard time imagining the many with worse asthma than mine and no insurance and/or no air conditioning. Thankful, and for the rain as well.

Oh, and PS, the photos will return one day…

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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.