Absolutely LOVED this.

Looks like just before I found a tree in my yard

k.e. loe: Thank you! I really appreciate you stopping in to read it.

Lezlie

Token: Oh, no!

Lezlie

Once had a thunderstorm chase me at 70mph all the way across the Oklahoma panhandle... your post reminds me of that trip.

jmac, I've heard of stormchasers, but never heard of peoplechasing storms! Whoa.

I've always loved thunderstorms, even though there's a hole in my front yard where a tree used to be because of one.

Good work.

Thanks, Kosh. Yeah, our trees in the southeast don't do well in thunderstorms.

Very nice.

Terrific, Lezlie! Terrifyingly good. You've captured the strange marriage of beauty and violence and the anxiety it brings from Nature and from us. Storm's are fascinating creatures, and you have pinned this one down in words and those photos looming danger. Stylistically, I like the crisp font and the boldfacing of key words. A striking package.

We've had some terrible storms here today. You poem really hits home.

Bea: Thank you.

Matt: I'm downright giddy that people are liking this. Thank you for your encouraging -- no, delightful words.

Scanner: We are having one right now! Satellite is gone again! Hang on to the power.

Absolutely beautiful!

This was gorgeous. R. !!!

joyonboard: HI!!!!! Are you back? Thanks.

Deb: Thanks so much.

And it is so. There is something majestic and awful in nature. We are fascinated by the power and frightened as well. Wonderful job of construction. I agree with Matt.

Our storm is just moving in. Can't wait for some rain./r

Woo Loved the images. Black Lace. You nailed this one!

Danger/Beauty/Motion/Strobes....this was pure art.

Lezlie, do I recall correctly you saying a year or two ago that you couldn't write poetry?

The tone of this poem is perfect! Wonderful words, images and voice!

Beautifully done!

You're reminding me that hurricane season is here. You're scaring me, Lezlie!

well done, and I can see her dancing, entrancing,
she's wearing black lace ~ because she wants
to remind me ~ to get really serious
about climate change.

Lezlie,
If you're not familiar with this music, I'm about to do you a major favor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkiekSYfK-0&feature=relmfu

This is van Beethoven's Symphony #6, the Pastorale, in this case conducted by Herbert von Karajan. There are a couple of videos before this one, but this is the one with the thunderstorm. It starts at three minutes in (so start a little sooner) and finishes at the end of this particular video (there's another after this). You'll have to play with your volume control because the very beginning is really soft, but suddenly crescendos to reallyloud. The storm itself is cool but my favorite parts are the very beginning, where he captures exactly what it's like when it's just starting, and at the end, when it's leaving. Most of his symphonies aren't programatic like this - they're not specifically about something.

To my knowledge, the best storm in classical music. Maybe the best in music period.

I am looking at your poem in the sky this morning!

Well done! And VERY applicable to this summer!

ooooooo...i can almost feel it rolling in - and my skies are blue blue blue! Awesome poem, Lezlie!

This sounds like my area of the country - we've been getting non-stop thunderstorms. And what a beautiful way to describe a thunderstorm - loved it!

Lezlie words and photos combine so very well! r.

[r] L -- how masterful is this work. Absolutely love it. And the pics really work, too! my favorite stanza:

"Drumrolls portend the curtain's rise

the clouds release the Strobes

in jagged streaks that hide and seek

releasing Nature's angst."

breathtakingly expressed. the metaphor of the curtain and the strobes! love the internal rhyme of streaks and release and seek. And "jagged streaks that hide and seek" WOW!!! love it. appreciate the poetic license you use for conciseness there! Bravo.

Best, libby

Great descriptions here!

This post has received a Readers' Picks award.

That's just the way it is. Beautiful. r