Witness to the storm

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Ruth Weal

I love storms – I was born during a great thunder and lightning storm and they’ve always fascinated me since I was a young child. There is something so magnificent in the transitory nature and the absolute power of the sky that they exude. Even after they have ended, they leave and indelible mark on the mind and emotions of those who have experienced them, a sense of wonder and reverence of mother nature’s fury.

They take over all your senses, the lightning and the brooding clouds burning into your retinas, the thunder pounding through your ears and the scent of ozone sizzling through your nostrils. The feeling of anticipation that builds within me matches the building of power within the storm.

Here’s a picture of storm clouds over Glastonbury Tor, which is a black and white treatment of the picture Pregnant with power from my Up on the Tor flickr set that I took back in June 2007. It was a strange day, I hadn’t planned to visit Glastonbury and ended up going on a whim as I was in the area. The weather looked like it was going to downpour at any moment, but for the whole time that my Dad and I were up on the Tor the weather held and when we went down into Glastonbury and visited the chalice well gardens the clouds parted and the sun came out. As you can see from the picture though and the rest of the flickr set, it was definitely pouring down elsewhere on the Somerset Levels!

Pregnant with Power - Copyright R.Weal 2007

And finally you’ll find a personal favourite of the poems that I’ve written over the years – “Witness to the Storm”. Witness to the Storm was written during a spectacular storm back in June 2005. It was a beautiful and captivating storm with great power and lots of thunder, lightning and heavy downpours of fat rain.

I was stood outside in my garden, dripping wet with the pouring rain and loving it, experiencing the storm with the poem bursting forth inside my head with the speed and power of each thunder clap and lightning bolt. With every new line I’d run inside the back door dripping wet and quickly write it down as it came to me, eager to get back outside so that I could continue to commune with the storm and discover the next line desperate to be born.

What I ended up with was a very visceral and honest poem that never fails to bring back not just the memory, but the sense and feeling of the storm that day and the swell of emotions that it brought forth in me. I hope you enjoy the poem and that in some small way it brings alive a little bit of the storm again to live on in you.

Embrace the storm in you and you will ever be vibrant.

Wealie x

WITNESS TO THE STORM

Today I bore witness to the storm
As others ran to shelter, I stepped out and watched it take form
Fat droplets of rain like a tentative caress
As lovers lips to lips might press
Each strike of lightening coruscating through my veins
Each clap of thunder danced across my emotional plane

The scent of the earth is spiced with heat
I sensed the social constraint within me deplete
A daughter of earth I stepped out from the fold
Waiting on Thor, for my vision to behold
My mood and the storm forever entwined in pace
The wisdom of ages writ across my face.

At one with the earth and sky
For a singular moment my soul could fly
I tasted of Mother Nature’s flesh
Understanding dawning of my one true quest
A conduit of power my body became
Perfectly contained, in this, my earthbound frame.

Dancing beneath the balming rain
Washing away my every pain
Absolved of all my sin
Soaked through beyond mere skin
Arms raised to heaven in supplication
Power mirrored within me in affirmation

Hunger for power, desire for knowledge
I unshackled the armour which society polished
Set free by nature and her storm divine
Even now it’s over, a part of her is ever mine
Mind and soul, body and storm enmeshed
I am blessed, I am blessed, I am blessed.

Ruth Weal
28 June 2005 7.29 pm