DELUGE

Heaven's grief descended upon
Earth; swelling cataracts

of greedy gushing grey swamped

our fields and orchards; 

watery mills ground man's boast 

and bravado into toneless,

grain-less nothingness.

We erupted with the sky, cursing

cruel Fate, bemoaning 

the exigencies of fickle fortune,

comparing gashes and

scars, clouding chill chambers and 

coigns in a cacophony 

of contrived commiseration. 

The artist alone would not be impelled

to indulgent dejection;

into his ken the light floated through 

the gauntly black boreal

tumult, elevating his heart and hands

into realms of peaceful

kinship with celestial design.

A sublimity he composed, a jubilant

chiaroscuro echoing Nature's

facture, earthly prolegomenon to her

sacred tomes. I stand this

day before its amplitude, listening for

the music of raindrops,

for the sighs of the dying deluge.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: STORM IN THE NORTH SEA

Source: http://19thcenturyrusspaint.blogspot.com

Artist: Ivan Aivazovsky