Music For An East Coast Flood Watch

The Avenue in the Rain                  Childe Hassam, American, 1917

Yes, the National Weather Service has issued a 72 hour-long flood watch covering the East Coast from central Florida to Maine. It's going to rain, my friends, on lots of Independence Day celebrations. In order to  look on the brighter side of this event - you know you'll enjoy the holiday anyway - here is a song about rain and why, deep in our souls, we cherish it.

Cloudburst is sung in Spanish and based on a poem by the Mexican writer, Octavio Paz. Here is a translation:

The rain ...
Eyes of shadow-water
eyes of well-water
eyes of dream-water.
Blue suns, green whirlwinds,
pecks of light that open
pomegranate stars.
But tell me, burnt earth,
is there no water?
Only blood, only dust,
only naked footsteps on the thorns?

The rain awakens ...
We must sleep with open eyes,
We must dream with our hands
we must dream dreams of active rivers
Searching for their cause
Dreams of the sun dreaming of its worlds
we must dream aloud,
we must sing till the song
casts roots,
trunks, branches, birds, stars,
we must unearth the lost word,
and remember
what the blood, the tides,
the earth, and the body say,
and return to the point of departure