I wrote this piece of writing on July 26, 2014, on a website that no longer exists. The original piece turned out to be a “first draft”, which I later decided to craft into a poem. It was very hot and humid Summer day, and I was wishing for rain.
During the drought, we conserved water
In hot, humid, muggy, sticky weather
I wish it would rain
Lazy and sleepy from the heat
That rises visibly from the street
I’m hoping for rain
Humidity thickened air
Panting breath; frizzing of hair
I’m waiting for rain
Pouring buckets
Raining cats and dogs
Gardens getting waterlogged
Heavens have opened
Washing heat away
Thunderstorms welcome today!
All of this is but a dream
As we swelter in the steam
It’s not gonna rain
The website that I originally posted this poem on (and then adapted here) no longer exists. It was one that paid people to blog on their site, in the hope of earning some money from the site’s ad revenue. In short, the company failed in many ways, writers quit, and content scrapers posted a multitude of writing that certainly wasn’t their own work.
One day, the site disappeared, leaving many writers very upset because they hadn’t thought to make a copy of their content just in case something like that happened. To me, it seemed like a whole lot of people, who were promised payment for their heart-felt blog posts – didn’t get anything in return.
For additional context, I live in California. It doesn’t rain here very often. The summer months can be very hot and humid here, and the state has a tendency for fire to break out and spread. The poem you see here is what I was feeling in the midst of a Summer that had gotten too hot for me to be comfortable anymore.
I didn’t have very much time to write anything today, and had no inspiration. Looking for help, I skimmed through the “Writing-Prompts” section of the Blaugust Discord. Mr. Peril (of the Contains Moderate Peril blog) posted the following prompt:
“Today’s radical writing prompt is as follows. Go through your draft folder and pick one of those unfinished posts and complete it.”
Thanks for the writing prompt, Mr. Peril! Your suggestion really helped me get “unstuck” today.
#Blaugust2022