Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Kevin Young?s "How to Make Rain" is a mesmerizing invocation that blends myth, ritual, and longing into a poetic meditation on water as a source of life, memory, and transformation. Through vivid imagery and rhythmic repetition, the poem constructs a liturgy of rain, capturing its physical, emotional, and symbolic dimensions. The work resonates with themes of drought and renewal, blending the practical and the mystical to create a deeply evocative narrative.

The poem opens with a directive, "Start with the sun / piled weeks deep on your back," immediately situating the reader in a landscape of heat, endurance, and deprivation. The accumulated "weeks deep" of sun suggests a prolonged drought, both literal and metaphorical, setting the stage for a ritual that seeks relief. The mention of "an entire growing season" without rain evokes the stakes of survival, tying the absence of water to the rhythms of agriculture, life, and the human body itself.

The act of summoning rain begins with a primal connection to the earth: "spit twice into the red clay / stomp your silent feet." These gestures, simple and grounded, suggest an almost shamanic ritual, where the speaker uses bodily actions to bridge the human and natural worlds. The "red clay" evokes a fertile yet thirsty landscape, one imbued with the memory of past rains and the promise of renewal.

The poem’s rhythm accelerates with cascading images of rain and its effects: "rain to bring the washing in / rain of reaping rusty tubs of rain." This repetition builds a sense of urgency and longing, emphasizing rain’s role as a force of cleansing, sustenance, and abundance. The imagery of "wish aloud to be caught in the throat of the dry well" captures the desperation for water, likening it to a trapped, unfulfilled prayer. The "dry well," an emblem of loss and absence, becomes a site of yearning, where rain represents not only physical replenishment but also spiritual fulfillment.

Young?s invocation of rain is both deeply personal and rooted in communal history. Phrases like "rain of our / fathers" and "shoeless rain" evoke ancestral connections and memories of past struggles, suggesting that rain carries with it the weight of heritage and survival. The folkloric expression "the devil is / beating his wife rain" introduces a cultural layer, blending humor, superstition, and metaphor to emphasize rain’s unpredictable, sometimes violent arrival.

The poem’s shift to planting "scare crow people face down" introduces a surreal and haunting element. These "scare crow people" become both figures of protection and symbols of sacrifice, their transformation into rooted beings reflecting the profound relationship between humans and the land. The "bony anchor" they provide suggests a grounding force, something essential to withstand the "coming storm."

Rain is portrayed as a force of transformation throughout the poem, capable of evoking memory and change. The "sudden soaking rain that draws out the nightcrawler" connects the downpour to hidden, subterranean life, suggesting that rain brings forth what is buried—both literally and metaphorically. The "rain of forgetting" and "rain that asks for more rain" highlight its dual nature as both erasure and renewal, a cycle of loss and replenishment.

The closing lines deepen the poem’s emotional resonance: "what you are looking for must fall / what you are looking for is deep among clouds." These statements frame rain as both a physical phenomenon and a metaphor for longing and discovery. The imagery of "a girl selling kisses beneath cottonwood" and "a boy drowning inside the earth" suggests the dualities of desire and despair, life and death. These figures, steeped in both hope and tragedy, encapsulate the human yearning for connection, sustenance, and meaning.

"How to Make Rain" is a powerful synthesis of myth and reality, weaving together the elemental and the human in a tapestry of longing and ritual. Through its vivid imagery and rhythmic incantation, Kevin Young captures rain as a symbol of life’s cyclical nature—its capacity to nourish, cleanse, and transform. The poem resonates as both a celebration of resilience and a meditation on the enduring human connection to the natural world. It invites readers to reflect on their own sources of sustenance and the rituals that carry them through times of drought and renewal.

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