Today’s prompt is to write a poem inspired by non-Greco-Roman myth.  Could be Norse, could be Japanese, could be….   Game on.  I had already begun a poem about the rain here on the northern coast of California, and then I found this:

From Wikipedia

Ameonna (雨女, “rain woman”) is a female spirit illustrated in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Hyakki Shūi as a woman standing in the rain and licking her hand. She is described as a goddess from China’s Mount Wushan, who is a cloud in the morning and rain in the evening. She may be considered a rain-bringer for crops.

So I blended her in to my rain poem.

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April 2, 2014

The rain falls,
now straight,
        straight as the redwoods it fall on,
now slant,
        slant in the wind.
The wooden steps
are slick with moss;
     the walker must
     hold on with care,
     go slow.

 
My heart, too, falls,
drops straight,
flies slant,
my own descending path too wet for walking;
     take care,
     go slow,
     hold on.

Ameonna, she the morning cloud and evening rain,
Ameonna stands and licks her hand,
and the rain falls straight and slant,
and our wet hands hold on.