A poem I wrote after spending a few days in Borrowdale when heavy rain broke the summer drought in 2022.

Stephen Allen

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Dancing in the Rain

A summer of relentless dry

And smoky dust hangs in the air

The dale head stream has lost its force

So Sour Milk rocks are showing bare

 

But all can change within a day

And doom-say gives way to rejoice

For Thor’s gift rumbles once again

And the wettest valley hears the voice

 

Soon the gill is newly running

The trickles swell to waterfalls

Each breath smells of clear renewal

The dipper bobs and the stonechat calls

 

Hikers sluiced down from the mountain

Have caught the spirit of the day

As they cross the Derwent’s diamond deep

With a light-foot tread along the way

 

The future of this unique place

Requires visionary acts of faith

For the next keepers of the terrain

Are children dancing in the rain

 

©Stephen Allen 2023

Stephen Allen is a British poet with a particular interest in the natural world, wildlife conservation, our deep past and the complex threads of mystery and perception that bind us to Nature. By profession he is a physician, though his love of poetry goes back to his youth. He was educated at Kingswood Grammar School in Bristol and Manchester University. He lives in Salisbury. He recently published a collection of poems entitled: Unfrozen: Poems of the West Country, Hobnob Press, 2022, ISBN: 978-1-914407-40-6. 

Image: Borrowdale by Alan Carruthers