:: beautiful rain ::

(start a sad song now, and read this post while it's playing. your experience will be greatly enhanced.)

I've been living in longfellow's poem "the day is done" all afternoon. this is the poem I wish I'd written. it's one of those that you read, and each verse gets truer and truer and you know exactly what he means and you wish you could have met him so that you could say how much you appreciated it.

maybe because today was california-rainy. maybe because it was actually pretty. maybe because I had caramel apple cider, so it felt cozy and not depressing; but these two stanzas kept coming to mind, and I know just what he meant -- I've felt this unspeakable bittersweetness before, but I've never been able to put it into words. he can. he does.

I see the lights of the village
        Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
        That my soul cannot resist;

A feeling of sadness and longing,
        That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
        As the mist resembles the rain.

"...and resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain..."