The rain does things to this earth: Gives it new birth, helps it grow. I know the rain cleanses, The air, the stones, the green Plants, the people, even me alone. None but the rain, one Of God’s eternal saviors—his partner— Cleanses sin, the dirt, of the wool over His sheep’s eyes so. Alone, I Walk in the rain, not feeling Sin, nor dirt, and having My problems’s worry washed away, Into the compassionate sea; There to stay. All this sounds odd, perhaps but I enjoy the rain. The new life it brings helps me grow Green like plants in the spring; And the old and dirty Melts away like the snow, And runs down the rivers into the compassionate sea. No wonder the sea is restless. No wonder the grass grows, When it rains.
I like to walk in the rain breathing the fresh clean air, as though it cleansed, as though it forgave, as though it renewed. Its baptismal drops run off my head to drain into the restless sea.
November 1969, 14 July 2017