Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RAINY SEASON, by CLARENCE MAJOR Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: You've never seen such a flat black ocean Last Line: And the gold, the pink, lavender rocks Subject(s): Mexico; Rain | ||||||||
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico August 1968 You've never seen such a flat black ocean a perfect straight line. Now the sky is gray with no wrinkles. Two inches thick from here with soft-wash black telephone poles leaning against it, crooked and old, the thinnest things you ever saw. Look at the corner of this brick wall. (I have painted it several times.) It changes color under the splatter of the rain. Hear the thunder, see the lightning. Out toward the malecon a huge black bird with wings as wide as a fan belt for a Ford dives down into the deep ocean, leaving a large clean spot open in the sky. Now the edge of the sun floats as the mighty bird comes up, and ducks again. Across the street, three white American station wagons parked against an orange brick wall beside a white-faced hotel with a black doorway. This wall the trees the cars the traffic change before my eyes. But now along the mountain range you see yellows that stay put with the blues, touched gently by blue light. Now a red truck very red in the rain with halo-light around it comes around the corner, followed by a sleek brown nag, ears down, pulling an old weatherworn wagon as the cars plow through, turning and slicing the water back onto two women carrying washtubs, filled with wet clothes, balanced on their heads. A little bowlegged hombre beneath a large sombrero and in a raincoat drives his legs meanly up Hidalgo. Now, the sun that must take its time in going, comes out to finish. The weather here is so strange. Now, the ocean is gray and scorched the yellow of butter. So are the river in the road and the green rocks and the gold, the pink, lavender rocks. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DISTANT RAINFALL by ROBINSON JEFFERS CHAMBER MUSIC: 32 by JAMES JOYCE HEAVY SUMMER RAIN by JANE KENYON CROWD CORRALLING by MARGARET AVISON THE RAIN-POOL by KARLE WILSON BAKER ON THE GREAT ATLANTIC RAINWAY by KENNETH KOCH READ THE SIGNS by CLARENCE MAJOR |
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