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rain

Rain - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face…

Here’s the Weather - by Stuart A. Paterson

{ Poem }

Fae stooshie tae fankle tae bouroch tae dreck / we’re steeped in the downpour of dialect.
/ …

A Bush Night - by Will H. Ogilvie

{ Poem }

I remember the pale summer lightning that flashed on the purple
horizon,
Full-sweep like the sword-play of giants, the dark to bedeck
and bedizen
With gold for the path of the planets

In the Mid-Midwinter - by Liz Lochhead

{ Poem }

the light comes back
the light always comes back

Chronos - by Alan Jackson

{ Poem }

A man wi’ a great big beard
/ A met;
/ Said: ‘Don’t be feared
/ If ye get wet.
/
/ Run twenty years
/ On nature’s…

Near Linton Burnfoot - by Ron Butlin

{ Poem }

Tarred roads, metal cattle-grids and wheel tracks mesh
/ so tightly no land can escape. Tractor ruts
/ cut deep into the grass to…

A Night’s Rain - by Walter Wingate

{ Poem }

The thunder clap may clatter –
/ The lichtnin’ flare awa’:
/ I’m listenin’ to the water,
/ …

Foo Mony Cubits? - by Ken Morrice

{ Poem }

The sun’s been tint for weeks. Deid maybe.
/ Likely drooned. Water’s aaplace, teemin doon
/ gutters and branders, rinnin aff the slates,
/ floodin pavements.

The Cloud - by Percy Bysshe Shelley

{ Poem }

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
/ From the seas and…

‘Kiss me…’ - by Edwin Morgan

{ Poem }

Kiss me with rain on your eyelashes,
come on, let us sway together,
under the trees, and to hell with thunder.

Like T-Rex - by Sheena Blackhall

{ Poem }

It felt as if it had rained for centuries
/ Drips fell ding-dong remorseless, over the drowned fields
/ As if summer had…

Rains of Nauru - by Makerita Va’a

{ Poem }

Rain, symbolic of a loss
/ of friend or foe
/ an ally or enemy
/ a chief or commoner
/ a native or foreigner
/ plagued by death
/ signifies a…

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Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2026.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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