40 Comments
User's avatar
Nazish Nasim's avatar

"The sky of a billion years

enters each drop. " - that's really beautiful l, Rajani. An incredible poem 💞

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thank you, Nazish. It was amazing to read those other two poems and I just had to bring that rain home. :)

Expand full comment
Vidya K Victor's avatar

Beautiful poem, Rajani! Rain was always considered romantic and poetic. I love rains except when it muddies the roads or floods and takes people's lives. The lines "The rain, weapon. The rain, wound." reminded me of the recent rains in Kerala. We all get worried when it rains non-stop in Kerala, not knowing what havoc will the rains cause next. Otherwise the rain is soothing and feels like a blessing. Loved the lines "Clouds bend lower to pray." 😍

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thank you, Vidya...yes, rain has a dark side and I tend to write to it a lot, especially as we get deeper into the monsoon. But writing this poem in March was purely inspiration from those other two splendid poems.

Expand full comment
Vidya K Victor's avatar

Yes, I could feel the cool rain drops in your words 😍 Thank you for sharing this.

Expand full comment
Rachel Schiller's avatar

Great writing. Love "March that thinks it is May" and "breath is a paper boat".

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Rachel and glad you liked those lines!!! :)

Expand full comment
Mahdi Meshkatee's avatar

Conjures up Nietzsche’s sentiment in Thus Spoke Zarathustra:

“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?”

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thank you, Mahdi...it is an interesting concept isn't it...if we think of rain as renewal, then something has succumbed and is in need of renewal - earth or spirit...or love. Rain is a muse from every POV!!!

Expand full comment
Rosemary Nissen-Wade's avatar

Beauitiful! (And inspired a response, at my 'Enheduanna's Daughter' blog.)

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much, Rosemary! A crazy, lingering storm...glad the worst of it has passed. I loved the response poem. I'll leave the link here for anyone wanting to read about Cyclone Alfred and Rain in Australia. https://enheduannasdaughter.blogspot.com/2025/03/and-sometimes-it-rains-outside-poem.html

Expand full comment
Rosemary Nissen-Wade's avatar

Oh, thank you!

Expand full comment
Laura Hansen's avatar

This is a wonderful meditation on rain and also of how poems and poets inspire each other. Your poem to rain and the poetry of rain is masterful.

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Laura. Glad you liked the poem!

Expand full comment
Sherry Marr's avatar

This is a perfect example of "sometimes it rains inside a poem." I felt the wetness. Beautiful. As is your photo.

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thank you, Sherry. Glad it resonated. The picture is AI generated!!

Expand full comment
Callahan Gobble's avatar

Thank you for this!

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Callahan. Glad you liked it!!

Expand full comment
Kerfe's avatar

But we must build our own arks, mustn't we?

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Yes, yes, we must, K...if we can. Sometimes though, much like the monsoon, we have no control over it...I wish all arks were possible, actually I wish there were no arks needed...

Expand full comment
Kerfe's avatar

That would be wonderful...yes I wish that too.

Expand full comment
LeeAnn Pickrell's avatar

Wonderful poem. I especially loved “breath is a paper boat.”

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thank you, LeeAnn. So glad you liked that line..the monsoon lasts for months, it is both lifeline and threat...in so many ways!!

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Every image holds me, and this

takes me to Bangalore:

"While the city gives up

from its deluged womb,

rats and snakes

and traffic snarls: the

red light like a bug smashed

against the windshield

bloodied and dripping.

The rain, weapon. The rain, wound."

Having lived in a Monsoonal climate (Darwin, in our Northern Territory) this poem speaks to me of the Northern Monsoon, in a city I have never seen... a nation I have never been....

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much, David. I didn't know Darwin was Monsoonal (live and learn everyday)! Officially we have two "monsoons" - the first from Jun to Sep and then the retreating monsoon in Oct/Nov. The coasts get the bulk of the rain, so we're relatively okay... but it is the most evocative season!! Full of poetry!!

Expand full comment
David Kirkby's avatar

Yes ... I have read about this.

Northern Australia has one Monsoon - and therefore two main seasons: "The Wet" and "The Dry" as they are called locally. Not very imaginative!!!

(Although in fact the traditional owners of the lands - the First Nation/Aboriginal people do recognise and have names for several other seasons).

Essentially - in the far North - it is almost entirely dry from Mid March through until around November. Towards the end of the year the humidity builds day by day, and the heat, but it does not rain. People go a bit crazy! Because the mango fruit are ripening through this time, it gets called "the mango season." Eventually, after a couple of months of this, the first rains come, with hot steamy mornings building to a massive afternoon thunderstorm. Then - later in "The Wet" major rain systems can arrive - including Tropical Cyclones - and it can rain torrentially for many days at a time.

The the rains end, and everything starts to dry out......

And yes - the monsoon is a time of poetry. Particularly for someone like me - who adores rain and storms!!

I would love to see the Monsoon in your incredible country....

Best Wishes - Dave

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Oh we too have our Mango season in Apr/ May before the rains start!! Can't wait for next month - 37C yes, but then mangoes!! And do visit if you can... the monsoon on the west coast with all the waterfalls dancing down the hills is quite the experience!!

Expand full comment
Cendrine Marrouat - Artist's avatar

This line hit me hard (but in a great way): "Breath is a paper boat." Wow!

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Cendrine. So glad you like that line...it does feel like life is tottering on an edge during the heaviest part of the monsoon!

Expand full comment
Cendrine Marrouat - Artist's avatar

Indeed!

Expand full comment
Carolina Martin's avatar

i REALLY enjoy the imagery in the second stanza referring to the age of things… it affects my soul when i consider these thing on my own. to read them in such striking words nearly brought me to tears.

great poem. worthy of its subject :)

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much, Carolina. That's very kind. Am so glad you enjoyed the poem.

Expand full comment
Sofie's Poetry's avatar

Beautiful to read, thank you

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thanks so much, Sofie. Glad you liked it!!

Expand full comment
Rebecca Cook's avatar

Each spring, I wonder if it's the last one.

This is lovely. And difficult in places, which is what makes it compelling.

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

Thank you, Rebecca. The monsoon is a blessing but it also dumps misery on so many with the flooding and displacement and urban chaos. I have a love-hate relationship with it... :)

Expand full comment
Rebecca Cook's avatar

I sometimes wonder what it must be like to live in a world where the “rains” come, to have an least some idea when it will rain and for how long. Though the world is changing all over. Where are you?

Expand full comment
Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

In the southern part of India. We've always known the monsoon will set in sometime in the first week of June. What climate change will do these patterns is a scary, scary thought.

Expand full comment