in hurricane rain
Hurricane Irene is past and the skies are clearing after 44 mm of rain yesterday and a very windy night.
I feel so sorry for those who are left in misery after the storm, but our experience was rather tame. My memories will be:
…bands of rain across the yard…
- rain viewed from the window
…waking up to a lawn riddled with leaves…
- leaves on our ‘lawn’ of violets…why do they all seem to land upside down?
…a clear sky in the middle of the night. A star was shining through our window, made alternately non-existent and brilliant by the wild movement of the tree branches in the wind. The star was so bright it woke me…
- the trees above our deck rocked wildly all night long
…our demented windchime. A mangle at the best of times, the poor thing is so tangled, it may not be possible for me to figure out the puzzle…
- my poor tangled windchime …yes it is rusty but it makes a lovely sound
…everything saturated, the bird bath full of clean, fresh water and our driveway like soup…
- bird bath and rain
My first knowledge of the power of a hurricane was associated with Hurricane Hazel. I was born the year it hit in 1954 (October 15), but its ‘bad reputation’ lived long enough for me to hear stories of it as a child. In its wake, 81 people in Ontario were dead due to flooding, and 4000 people in southern Ontario were left homeless.
Hurricane
~
Hazel
hurled northward
toward home
and me bewildered
wind at the roof
rain at the glass
faint imitation
of the rage
described in the encyclopaedia
more like the silent eye
~
I turned the page
saw a photograph in disbelief
a straw driven
into the heart of a tree
still standing
~
today, I believe
~
I stand still
while fury lashes around me
and in the quiet, I
am impaled
by a word
~
Published as: ‘Hurricane’, 1993, The Amethyst Review 1 (2)
(revised)
© Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 
I stand still
while fury lashes around me
and in the quiet, I
am impaled
by a word
Wow. Very impressive ending.
36 hours without power, bathing in buckets, reusing the water to flush toilets, oil lamps and candles, losing 200$ worth of meat and dairy products. That’s all I’m going to say about Hurricane Irene. Oh, and power crews deliberately leaving repairs on my street to the bitter end while everyone else was getting their power restored. A conspiracy theory in the making?
-Denis
LikeLike
JD
September 3, 2011 at 8:28 pm
The picture of the trees above your deck is striking – it captures the wild mood. I’m glad to know that you weren’t too badly affected by Irene. Interesting about Hazel. Apparently her name was “retired” from use for North Atlantic hurricanes because of the damage she caused and the high death toll. I also heard stories of an infamous hurricane, the Great Hurricane of 1938, while I was growing up. Dad was a high school student and my aunt was a young wife and mother. It’s amazing how these memories are handed down to the next generation…
LikeLike
Barbara Rodgers
September 3, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Another storm with its memorable stories is the Ground Hog Day storm of 1976. I have seen photos that show the salt damage to trees 100 miles inland. Jane
LikeLike
jane tims
September 3, 2011 at 5:02 pm