Many Burren Rains - A Poem

Roy, stone cutter at Irish Natural Stone, visited us in South Waterford during a summer

thunderstorm. “The rain drops here are much bigger than back home in Clare,” he said. That made me consider how many different kinds of rain fall in the Burren, where it rains nearly every day.

Many Burren Rains

Sleet driven horizontally on westerlies,

riding hard on dark and scudding clouds,

bites your face and bare hands.

Clouds of big, warm drops

blown in gently from Kerry.

You can walk in it.

Grand soft rain on a warm day,

unstopped by dim sun,

loved by double rainbows.

Mists of tiny droplets

hang on grass and rowan leaves,

your nose and complex spider webs.

Downpours in ghastly hurricanes,

last for many long dark days,

cause shallow turloughs to overflow.

Rain seen far away,

falling on hills if viewed from valleys

In valleys, if you look from higher land.

Close by, the sun shines brightly,

but you know that very soon

you will be soaking wet.