I Met the Rain / Louise Driscoll

I Met the Rain

I met the rain today in an open place,
    The young rain, adventuring, she danced as she came along.
Her dress was all of silver, she had a smiling face,
    And she sang to the dusty trees, a little song.

The dusty trees were glad and they clapped their hands.
    I saw a tired flower turn and smile.
At the bend of a little path where a linden stands,
    I watched the rain at play for a little while.

Her feet were small and they trod on the grass and bent it.
    She carried a scarf of mist that brushed my cheek.
She shook an odor out on the air to scent it,
    She bent to the barberries and I heard her speak.

I saw the rain go by like a girl with laughter,
    But I will never tell you the word she said.
That you must learn yourself and forever after
    Know how the leaves and grass are comforted.

I stood at a bend in the path and the rain went by me.
    I could see, like a skein of silk, her shining hair,
She turned with a little smile to satisfy me,
    For all the while she knew that I was there.

~~
Louise Driscoll (1875-1957)
from The Garden of the West, 1922

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

Louise Driscoll biography

DALL-E, "Kounu – Guardian Goddess of the Northern Direction & Lady of the Northern

 Mountains – Giver of Good Rainfall," 2024 (detail). Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.