Artie Carmenzind is Poet-of-the-Week for the W3 Prompt #215, and his prompt is to use either (or both) of these lines from the poem Drifting by Mary Oliver as a starting point for your poem:
- “my delicious walk in the rain”
- “what it is that music is trying to say”
No need to quote them directly. Let them guide you toward a memory, a moment of wonder, an encounter with weather, music, or something else that seemed to speak in a language beyond words.
See where the drift takes you.
Click here to read Mary Oliver’s poem Drifting
Drifting
by Mary Oliver
I was enjoying everything: the rain, the path
wherever it was taking me, the earth roots
beginning to stir.
I didn’t intend to start thinking about God,
it just happened.
How God, or the gods, are invisible,
quite understandable
But holiness is visible, entirely.
It’s wonderful to walk along like that,
thought not the usual intention to reach an
answer
but merely drifting.
Like clouds that only seem weightless.
but of course are not.
Are really important.
I mean, terribly important.
Not decoration by any means.
By next week the violets will be blooming.
Anyway, this was my delicious walk in the rain.
What was it actually about?
Think about what it is that music is trying to say.
It was something like that.
I hope you enjoy my poem and the song interpretaion.
Down the Lane
Down the country lane
there are puddles from the rain —
little pools of thought
where rainwater has been caught.
As I wander by,
little mirrors of the sky
glint and gleam
and sparkle
as clouds and birds drift by.
Then raindrops fall
on the puddle’s windowpane
and scatter heaven’s view —
forming magic crowns
they dance in circles
once again.
I step o’er
where raindrops play
and slowly wend
along the lane
upon my way.
—Lesley Scoble, June 2026
Audio – Down the Lane – Celtic Folk Song 🎶
THANK YOU
Thank you, Artie, for your inspiration.
Thank you, David, as always, for your W3 Weekly Prompts and constant poetic support and encouragement.
And my thanks to you, the reader, for spending this time with me.
LesleyScoble.com 
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