Rainbow Over The Blue Ridge Mountains - Virginia Center for the Arts, 1998

All day the rain has been rattling its tin shield

against the roof, but now, the noise stilled,

I look out the window and am surprised

by a rainbow over the Blue Ridge Mountains

in the distance, a huge arc of pink and yellow

and green, amazing and exquisite.

The rainbow fades quickly and is gone,

replaced by ostrich-feather clouds

that could be part of a Renaissance painting.

How rushed my life has been,

how fortunate to have this week

to return to the natural world again

and to listen to the first bird

chirping after rain.