Reading Poetry in a Thunderstorm

I wrote this poem several years ago when I was still teaching 7th grade English. I had a lot of fun finding ways to incorporate the poetic devices* I taught to my students into a description of a thunderstorm, and I was pleased when this poem finally found a home. It won first place in the Poetry Society of Texas Barbara Blanks Award last year and was published in their 2024 A Book of the Year.

I’m sharing this poem today because it’s very hot in Texas and also very hot in my house right now because our air conditioner is broken. [Note: I am not in my house right now. I’m in a nice cool coffee shop drinking an oatmilk latte.] Our AC will be fixed in a few days, but in the meantime, I’d really enjoy a cold front or a good rainstorm to cool things down for a bit. Maybe these words can conjure up something. And if not, I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Reading Poetry During a Thunderstorm

Words crackle on the page
as a bright flash alliterates the night sky.
Temperature drops, meter falters,
a gust of irony personifies the clouds.

I hear the rumble of a distant metaphor.

The cadence quickens.
Wind rhymes and language howls,
syllables shake tree limbs,
send leaves falling like similes. 
Onomatopoeias rattle the window panes.

The mood of the squall shifts—
rain coming down in stanzas,
pelting the roof with iambs.
A flood of imagery washes over 
and I am electrified by a bolt of verse,
struck by the power of hyperbole.

The water rises, allusions sink in
until the beat of the downpour dwindles
to a steady rhythmic pounding,
and the tempest concludes
in an isolated couplet.

The skies clear again,
revealing the theme in the stars.

© Carie Juettner

* There are 21 poetry-related terms in this poem. Can you find them all?