We had rain two days ago; a great big storm of it pushed into southern California. It was great. And all that day and into the next, this little line of old poetry kept dripping through my mind:
That small rain down can rain.
It’s from this fragment of anonymous 16th century poetry:
O Western wind when wilt thou blow
That small rain down can rain —
Christ, that my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again.
Wonderful, isn’t it? It makes you believe what Stephen King says about writing being a kind of telepathy; that thoughts can be transmitted from one mind to another, across centuries, by means of writing. There is so much longing in those four short lines.
How far we can wander from our purpose, from the home of our hopes, from the elusive moment when we last held ourselves in love and hope of love. Our soul cries out to the God of our understanding to guide us home again.
Anyway, I’ve heard there’s more rain on the way. So here’s a poem I posted a couple of years ago, when we were between storms.
Metaphor 
Well I hope it doesn’t come down to a case of “be careful what you wish for.” We’ve been hoping and praying for rain, and talking about it, dancing our rain dances, and staring at the intransigent sky. We’d conjure rain with black magic if we knew how. And now it looks like we’re going to get hammered flat by a monster storm. … Life is a hoot.
Beautiful post and poem. I’m glad that my California friends are finally getting rain!