Charmed Chaos
Musings on Life, Love, and Linguine-Poetry & Writing
Tempestuous Sky
The night air is oppressive as lightning flashes in the sky
Zeus wreaks havoc tonight, with his angry bolts that strike.
As a vicious storm comes roaring across the arid desert
huge raindrops hit, plopping onto dry as dust earth.
I close my eyes, breath in forgotten scent of fresh rain
As thunder shakes windowpanes, and brings the wind.
Screaming through the trees is the banshee wind
shaking and quaking their limbs against a stormy sky
birds search in vain for relief from pounding rain
fleeing in black twilight as bright lightning strikes
their silhouettes, shadows on a rain soaked earth
but they find no shelter in the storm tossed desert.
There is no haven of rest in this roiling desert
Nowhere are they safe from the powerful wind
there is nothing but the threat of a flooding earth
and the looming black blinding sinister sky,
no place to hide from the impending strikes
nor a dry nest where to rest in the pouring rain.
It seems it will never stop, this drenching rain
as it creates new rivers in washes of the desert
and every brilliant light of another bold strike
seems to feed the maniacal shrieking wind.
A black and white horror movie playing in the sky
for tonight it is Satan’s hell here on earth.
And yet, we persevere in this arid chunk of earth
enduring the long hot months without rain
sending prayers high to a cloudless sapphire sky
Please, have mercy on this dry unyielding desert.
At last our relief comes in a searing blowing wind
for far off on the horizon is an electrical strike.
Zeus throws his bolts of brilliant blue strikes
the heavens open up and drowns the dusty earth.
As the gods come riding in on the harsh wind
they bring a flooding deluge of welcome rain,
No longer dry is this thirsty parched desert
under the imposing black sinister sky.
With a final blinding strike at last comes, prayed-for rain
this torrid earth, and all the creatures surviving the desert
Endure the piercing wind, and welcome the gaping tempestuous sky.
©2021 Linda Lee Lyberg
Author’s Note: A third (and last for a while) sestina for the dVerse Poetry forms-Sestina WHEW!
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Charmed Chaos 
Intense writing, Linda. Great job!!
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Thank you Beckie. Intensity is exactly what I was trying to convey.
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You definitely succeeded at that!
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Smiling- thank you!
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Wow, what a stormy sky and dramatic sestina, Linda …glad prayers for rain were answered!
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Yes, they were! Thank you Lynn.
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Always beautiful dance of words, but I feel so much the opposite over here in Miami. And, yet, the same. It’s swampland madness leading to what I fear will be a crescendo of jet-packed rain.
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I hope you and yours are safe.
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Oops! And thank you kindly for your thoughts.
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So powerful. I can feel the rumble of the storm and hear the claps of thunder. Living between 2 deserts as I do, I know that relief when the rain finally comes.
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Thank you Victoria.
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Powerful and intense, an epic piece of poetry… thoroughly enjoyable to read……. xx
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Thank you so much Ivor.
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Very dramatic turn for the prompt. A very strong sense of place, bass drums and strobe lights stand in for thunder and lightning. You whipped the form into shape though.
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Thank you Glenn.
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Wow! A masterpiece of words about one of my favorite natural events – thunderstorms!!! Loved this line – Screaming through the trees is the banshee wind
shaking and quaking their limbs against a stormy sky!! Bellissimo, Linda, Bellissimo!!
xoxoxo
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Thank you Chuck. This is a complicated form. ❤️
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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🙏🏻❤️
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When rain comes as rarely as in a desert it comes with such blasting intensity… I do remember those thunderstorms in August…
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Yes, they are powerful. Thanks Bjorn.
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Well done with your 3rd sestina Linda. You went above and beyond! 🙂
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Writing them are a bit draining! Thanks Rob.
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I love how you captured the drama and intensity of that tempestous sky Linda. Witnessing it first hard must be terrifying yet captivating all at once. I am glad that prayers were answered and the rain finally came.
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Thank you so much Grace. We were surrounded by lightning strikes. Haven’t seen that in a long while.
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This I see intense throughout all the stanzas so really well constructed and graphic language. We are in the storm and certainly I understand the need for rain. Still waiting here in our Sierra in Spain.
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Thank you for your thoughts.
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