Coming+Storm

Jim Chandler
 Clouds gather and I wonder at the tempest to come, marked in possibility by red blotches on weather maps and the slow sway of elms and oaks in the building breeze

Afternoon will fade to evening as the sun draws its last breath of convection like a dying man expelling his last sigh in a white room who knows if there is more magic in death than in the pull of moisture toward the sun the birth of clouds from the blue belly of heaven

I sit- torn by a million emotions and no fear of clouds be they white puff balls sliding in a zure sheen or spinning tubes of dirty gray spitting death and the loss of gravity across dale and glade if only in temporary fashion- my face in a shining tube

I wonder if things could ever be as I hope they will be of if Fate will deal from the bottom of the deck while I smile from behind four aces and a royal flush seems as far away as the dying sun

The high flights are always followed by hard landings and sometimes things seem to ebb and flow in a way designed to confuse to bring fear tromping out of the basement armed with a bloody briar blade and wearing a grin that would scare Freddie off Elm Street and into exile

I rocked like an Atlas this morning kicked butt all the way to the stratosphere swung in an orbit high above this blue and white ball but my fuel went shy at some point

Nose heavy lift decayed sour air skirted my alirons and my elevator gone I plunged and spun downward graceful as a brick off the 10 meter board

I hit bottom with a splash and here I sit lost in a haze blinded by the shine of glowing tubes in my face

And I have0 no answers because I'm not even sure what the question is or if I want to Know

This poem is titled “Coming Storm” by Jim Chandler. “Coming Storm” is a very interesting poem, mainly in its shape, but also in its components. This poem talks about how the sky looks when a storms nears and how he feels or what it reminds him of. This poem is free verse. There are nine stanzas and no fixed number of lines in each one. Each stanza is one sentence and there are about 2-4 words on each line, so the poem is very long and very narrow. There is no rhyme scheme or meter. There is some alliteration which mostly consists of two words like “slow sway” and “building breeze” in the first stanza and “more magic” and “blue belly” in the second stanza. There is no assonance or onomatopoeia. As for figurative language, there are some similes. “ like a dying man ” in the first stanza and “as far away as the dying sun” in the third stanza. There was personification in the second stanza, “the sun draws its last breath," and no hyperbole. I think this poem's purpose was to make you feel, see, and experience what it is like before a coming storm. I think that it reached its goal in using imagery to portray the scene. In my opinion though, I thought it was pointless. I really didn't think there was any point other than describing a scene that everyone has seen before. Mabye someone who enjoys nature more than I do could get something out of this. ~PW