Lots of rain the past couple days. That's okay; we kind of need it. This year's April has been kind of a dry one.

As I sit up here in my little garret, can hear the drops pattering on the skylight windows. It's a very comforting sound, this. Reminds me that I'm safe and secure; brings me back to a time when I was little and everything was okay. It will be easy to sleep tonight wrapped in such comforting feelings and surrounded by such soothing sounds.

Rain

As the falling rain
trickles among the stones
memories come bubbling out.
It's as if the rain
had pierced my temples.
Streaming
streaming chaotically
come memories:
the reedy voice
of the servant
telling me tales
of ghosts.
They sat beside me
the ghosts
and the bed creaked
that purple-dark afternoon
when I learned you were leaving forever,
a gleaming pebble
from constant rubbing
becomes a comet.
Rain is falling
falling
and memories keep flooding by
they show me a senseless
world
a voracious
world--abyss
ambush
whirlwind
spur
but I keep loving it
because I do
because of my five senses
because of my amazement
because every morning,
because forever, I have loved it
without knowing why.

- Claribel Alegría
Translated by Margaret S. Peden