More heliophile than pluviophile, I’m neither the most obvious authority on rainy days, nor the most eligible author to heap poetic praise upon rainy days. But… when rumors of rain — and not just rumors, unfortunately — challenge winter wonderland wishes with less than two weeks until Christmas, something has to happen. But what? Well, pluviophilic poetry, of course!
Perhaps a rainy day post for those of us who prefer sun soaked bluebird skies. Or, better yet, a creative courtship of the rain lover’s enthusiasm, a lyric attempt to understand and appreciate their perspective, to inhabit their experience. And, maybe in the process, I’ll amplify my own perspective to find wonder and joy in cloudbursts forecast and cloudbursts delivered.
What is a Heliophile?
Before plunging you into pluviophilic poetry, let’s ground this post in sunnier sentiments. To do so I’ll enlist more learned help to explain what defines a heliophile (yours truly, for example).
A heliophile is a person that is attracted to… sunlight… [one who will] voluntarily seek sun exposure because it brings them happiness and motivates them.
Heliophiles are the kind of people that feel their best when the sun is shining. The sun brings out a different kind of energy within them…
When the sun is bright and shining, heliophiles too are bright and shining. As soon as gray clouds cover the sun, heliophiles feel the shift in the atmosphere and you can pretty much see the shift in their own energy and mood. (Source: Heliophile – Who They Are And What Defines Them)
So, what is a heliophile? A heliophile is a sun centric organism, perhaps a plant that has evolved to maximize it’s heliotropic exposure, perhaps a middle aged mammal that gravitates to sunlight.
The word heliophile has been derived from the Greek words helios and philos meaning Sun and loving respectively. (Source: Quora)
In short, if you love the sun, you’re a heliophile.
What is a Pluviophile?
Apparently, not all living organisms favor sunlight. As rumor (and the balance of nature) would have it, some prefer gray skies, puddles, damp and mildewy outerwear, and the slowly insane-making sound of rain. Rain lovers, however, sounds too cinematic (and, yes, I admit it, too romantic!) Instead we call this unfamiliar and unfathomable organism a pluviophile.
A pluviophile is someone who loves the rain… or someone that finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days… (Source: What is the meaning of pluviophile?)
They exist. Apparently. I’m not 100% certain I’ve ever met one, but I crossed paths with rain loving characters in books and films, so I warrant their existence. Elusive bunch!
Now, the apparent paucity of pluviophiles at least within my orbit compels me to stretch my sunlight centrism by imagining myself into the existence of one who loves rain. And, in so doing, I’m aspiring to diminish somewhat my aversion to rainy days. Here goes.
Rumors of Rain
A Poem for Puviophiles
Drip, drip, drip,
tinny tinkling,
sunless sprinkling,
water’s wordless
swish-whispering,
drip-drop, drip-drop,
pitter-pattering
on panes and planes.
Morning’s moist murmur
burbling beyond
my tea steam curl,
starting to spit
outside the window,
split-split-splattering,
plinking and plunking
on standing seam roof.
Mizzling drizzle’s
pit-a-pat becomes
rat-a-tat becomes
strumming and thrumming,
drumming, hammering,
showering sheets of
wind whipped sluicing,
juicing the journey.
Rumors of Sunshine… and Snow!
Fortunately our rainy doldrums appear to have passed. For now. And though the snow’s all melted away and the muddy mess reminds us that a white Christmas needs to be bumped up on our wishlist, I welcome the reminder that rainy days are only temporary veils concealing the sunlight and bluebird dome beyond.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Rainy Day" (Source: HWLongfellow.org)
As for a white Christmas, I concede that my distaste for rain is peculiar given my enthusiasm for snow. Indeed rain’s temporary tantrums have [almost] always struck me as far more appealing when the temperature is cold and the precipitation falls as snow. What a difference a few degrees makes!
And so I conclude this daily dispatch with two photographs — meteorological pump primers?! — from one decade ago, a far snowier prequel to yesterday’s rain, rain, rain. Enjoy this flashback to December 11, 2014.
What do you think?