-- THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THUNDER –
John Herlihy
There’s something revealing about thunder,
The mystery, the magnitude, the wonder.
Where does it come from, how does it happen?
We like to think we know, yet who can reckon.
Giant stones and boulders rumbling in cascade,
Marching across the heavens as if on parade.
Crashing cymbals blasting out a chaotic tune,
Unearthly rhythms drawn from an ancient rune.
I mentioned magnitude, yet who can account,
For the gripping hand as our latent fears mount.
Reaching down from Heaven right into the heart,
Meekly beating until the outrageous sounds depart.
The magnificent terror bespeaks a rarefied beauty,
Mother Nature herself fulfilling yet another duty.
When will they end, these celestial voices excessive?
How they seize me, these endless echoes impressive?
The beauty of the rose blushes as its scent delights;
The honeyed nectar of the flower our tongue incites.
The rainbow touches our sight as its colors glisten;
Roaring thunder enters our ears as we in awe listen.
The sound begins to roll as when mountains crumble,
From peak to peak as these sleeping beasts tremble.
The wind in frantic rant, the sky cast in indelible ink;
The day turned into night as bolts of lightning wink.
The wind catches its breath, every leaf doth tremble;
As commands of God these rumblings of heaven resemble.
Reverberations felt as eerie echoes in our bodily frame;
Earth groans under our feet as they rattle the windowpane.
A living thing this thunderous sound, deep, deeper still;
The howling unsettles our hearts with its breathless thrill.
The storm has changed us, a thing wondrous, strong;
This frightful sound of thunder carries us swiftly along.
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Copyright ©John Herlihy
Tuesday 26 July 2022
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Rebecca
happy about this for some reason…There is just something about thunder that puts everything into stark perspective…the power and the awe it can produce …
Nature can challenge everything we think we are in charge of!
For me, there is nothing like the thrill of a thunderstorm…!
Very enjoyable piece of writing John…
Diana🍃
But Ben Franklin already knew, and Alexander Graham Bell explored further what lightning was and what the resounding thunder was, as well. Merely a sonic boom that we now can make with a jet plane.
But the mystery of lightning is still being explored by scientists. Recently finding different forms of it in the upper atmosphere that hardly anybody can see or knows about. The way that lightning splits the air creates a chemical reaction in the atmosphere and a weak acid (you can smell it during a lightning storm) that falls with the rain to fertilize the soil as well as nourish it with water. Pure, drinkable water except for that single speck of dust that created every water drop in rain.
I find the magic of science describing phenomena like lightning and thunder far more magical land enlightening than the mythical religious fear related stories repeated over and over like God throwing lightning bolts, or as the old wives tale, thunder being "God rearranging the furniture upstairs." ;-)
Ron
PS