Ha!, we made it just as I thought…luscious, perfect weather…glad we are here and back to the delight of it all.

I’ve got a poem-a-day that drops into my e-mail box sponsored by Poets.org. Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.

Here’s a wild favorite:

Sometimes the Way It Rains Reminds Me of You

Colleen J. McElroy

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These days I speak of myself in the past tense

writing about yesterday knowing tomorrow

is no more than mist crawling toward violet mountains

I think of days when this weather meant you

were not so far away the light changing

so fast I believe I can see you turning a corner

the rain comes in smelling of pine and moss

a kind of brazen intrusion on the careful seeds of spring

I pay more attention to details these days

saving the most trivial until I sort them for trash

or recycle a luxury I’ve come to know only recently

you have never been too far from my thoughts

despite the newborn birds and their erratic songs

the way they tilt their heads as if dowsing for the sun

the way they repeat their singular songs

over and over as if wishing for a different outcome

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Colleen says of this poem:

“I live in the rain forest. Torrential or mizzle, the sound of rain snares your body’s rhythms, and its smells prompt reverie. This poem is one of those moments.”

Colleen is the author of Sleeping with the Moon (University of Illinois Press, 2007) and the forthcoming Blood Memory (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016).

McElroy is professor emerita at the University of Washington; she lives in Seattle, Washington.

Here’s some other fun stuff to investigate for those of you who can never quite get enough.

To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit: Poets.org.

Now seriously let’s hear from you all…I know you’ve poems in your pockets.

To shine your light in The Rocky Point Times Literary Column;

Outside The Lines

Contact Marcia at: m.diane.writeon@gmail.com