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.