Through The Storm

 "When you walk through the storm
hold your head up high
and don't be afraid of the dark"
 - You'll Never Walk Alone, by Rogers and Hammerstein 

I wrote this poem during a storm. Those who know me well know that to walk freely into the middle of a thunderstorm is something I would not easily be enticed to do, seeing as how getting struck by lightning has been a fear of mine since childhood, when I read several shiver-inducing stories in Reader's Digest. Even so, the idea of facing a fear so boldly holds a special tingle of excitement; it's a kind of foolish bravery which is admirable, nevertheless. On top of that, the idea of a raw and wild release - screaming into a storm - has a singular appeal to me. So, for whatever the imagined girl in this poem is going through, here's to finding comfort and calm in the midst of chaos. 

She walked into the thunderstorm 

She walked into the rain

With electric thoughts of lightning

To strike clean through her pain

The sky, absolute energy

Kinetic light and noise

Vibrations skewering round her

Did not deter her poise

Determinedly, or absently, 

Depending on one’s view

She stepped along the muddy path

Hurriedly soaked all through 

A delicious touch of danger 

A real and heady thrill

She sought to face the lightning

Audacious force of will 

Beneath the roaring, raging sky

Grief she offered, keening 

Animal-like and wild, found

Cleansing in the meaning 

Acceptance there to wail and shout

Cathartic diatribe 

Torrentially, her words released

The tempest as her scribe.