Best Tornado Poems
The warm temperature drops outdoors,
And first drops of fresh rain sprinkle.
The thunder claps right above me,
As lightening is striking afar.
Dust is blowing in the wind,
Trees are bending fiercely,
A train horn blares,
As the core nears me.
Then sudden silence,
A calm reappears.
Electrical fires start,
For a moment one
Thinks it’s over,
Then it starts
Again quickly.
Passing by my
Home taking
My neighbors,
Tin flying by,
The tornado
Fades, look
At all the
Damage.
And I
Am
Uns
c
a
t
h
e
d.
My poem is about Tornadic weather and evokes
Water in, 'first drops of fresh rain sprinkle'
Wind in, 'Trees are bending fiercely'
Earth in 'Dust is blowing in the wind'
Metal in 'Tin flying by'
Fire in, 'Electrical fires start'
Feeling in 'The warm temperature drops outdoors'
Smell in 'First drops of fresh rain sprinkle'
Taste in 'Dust is blowing in the wind'
Sight in, Lightening is striking afar'
Hearing in 'A train horn blares'
_____________________________
Inspired by Deborah Guzzi's
Five Senses / Five Elements contest.
Torrential rain, blinding wind howling,
Dark heavy clouds ominously scowling,
Brilliant radiant light of electric flashes,
Following the lightning, defiant crashes,
Loudest blasts make brave men cower,
Thunder so deafening it exudes power,
I was born of a powerful thunderstorm.
Still attached to its base, I will spawn.
Nature’s most violent, I am called TORNADO,
300 miles per hour, my winds will blow.
A rotating column of air touching the ground,
Violently spinning with a horrendous sound.
I will cause fatalities at a devastating rate,
Buildings, and whole towns, I will annihilate,
People panic seeing my deadly approach,
Over fields and farms and cities I encroach.
Lifting up animals, houses and cars in my wake,
My tempest is unending, with fury, victims I take,
Finally cold down drafts signal my final gust.
I slowly cease rotating and turn to dust.
I watch the storm clouds gathering,
I hear the siren scream,
Is this really happening,
Or is it just a dream?
Hurry, run for shelter,
But which way will it go?
My heart is beating wildly,
Now the wind begins to blow.
The sun above me glistens,
This can't be what it seems,
How can a tornado___________?
Again the siren screams.
I stand here as if rooted,
The monster I then spy,
Whirling, jumping, weaving,
Across the western sky.
A car's been absorbed,
Is someone inside?
A tree with roots dancing,
Looks like my wind chime.
Run, run crazy woman
You can't just stand here,
Hurry, run for shelter,
It's drawing quite near.
I tried, or so I thought,
But I didn't move,
It dipped and it danced,
Gouging it's own groove.
"Oh God," I cried,
"Please don't let this be."
And watched as a cow
Was swept off her feet.
First she was there,
And then she was gone.
It was just like a peek-a-boo,
Game going on.
Around and around,
Like a merry-go-round,
Swaying to and fro
As it crosses the ground.
"What was that I screamed",
Gasping for air,
As the wind whirled around me,
I just stood and stared.
How can this be happening
To my little world?
"Oh God, please protect him
He's just a small squirrel."
With tears in my eyes
I drop to my knees
As the house on the corner,
Flew over the trees.
The tornado was gone!
Where did it go?
And how did it miss me
I'd like to know.
I knelt there and cried
At what I had seen.
Then the alarm clock went off,
It had just been a dream.
And what did I learn?
As I tried to breathe.
When that siren screams,
It's the basement for me.
Cile Beer
writter 2005
All that time will do
is install you
in comfortable stockings.
The wind howls away the years.
Foxes hunt even while we sleep.
The binding is broken.
The straps are disconnected.
Wind carries away
even massive objects.
It is the tornado of life.
Chunk chunk
Clink clink
The mind keeps puffing
like a steamer.
Even pine trees are inspired
by the wind.
Shadow Rock hides the eyes
of children.
Their eyes grow heavy with sleep,
and they groan.
The bad dream progresses;
a story unfolds.
There can be no talking
during this time of storms,
this time of hiding behind rocks.
There is nothing left
worth stealing.
Pigs flying through air
A barn falls swiftly to earth
Tornado goes away
The possibilities are endless
With every new scientific discovery.
There is inspiration to invent devices
That improve quality of life
And save lives in the process.
Spin with the wave and slow it down
With drones and electromagnetism.
Entropy and vacuums.
Spin with the wave, then slow it down
With science and ingenuity.
Catch the wind and spin, hook in
The eye of the storm is calm
Harness the power of the gods
Right there in our palms
Think of the all the lives you'll save
All the kids that won't meet Oz
If only we could stop
Take time to ponder the devastating
Disastrous whirlwinds of the gods
Drop a probe down the eye
Let it spin, let it fly
Revolutionize the times
With the greatest challenge of all
Saving lives, having fun with everything resolved.
On Sunday last my troubles blew away in an E-F-5.
Good grief, Big Mean mama said, “Could you not keep my boy alive?”
I had been praying for a wonderful catastrophe like this.
For Frank G. Dell was a rounder, a real misfit.
He was known to slap me and punch me and beat me around.
I was optimistic when I heard the E-F-5 tornado sound.
The highest of winds came up hard, and they came up fast.
I did not know if either one of us would last.
“Take them!” he yelled, pointing straight at the baby and me.
Our darling child, aptly named Miss Dee.
I knew he was awful. I knew he was bad.
But he was my husband, and Miss Dee’s Dad.
The wind promptly picked him up and gave him a spank.
This was the end of my husband, my old man named Frank.
I’ll raise his child, Big Mama said to me.
A few minutes later, her corpse was hanging from a tree.
God sent that E-F-5 to save me that day.
When you mess with good people, you simply must pay.
For an hour
Cicadas saw at the early August evening
While thunder purrs as kittens
In the yarn of dark clouds balled up out west over Ionia County
Trees prepare their umbrellas
The Tigers on TV swing away in the 3rd inning
A good book in hand
Then out of hand
A den of lions-wind roars outside our patio window
Devours the screens
I jump back
House turns black
And our 100-year old standing friends
Just like that
Break in half no more than the unlucky draw of straws
While others are plucked like Hedgehog mushrooms
All thrown down
At dawn
Sunlight strikes of leftover lightning
Flashes through new holes punched in the canopy
I hadn’t seen the sky in my backyard for decades
But there it is
Claw marks across the laid-down lambs on forest floor
And upon the beast of me who lies beside them.
……….gale force winds announce the doom
…………………..portent of a dark and deathly gloom
…………………………..a maddening shriek of raging wind
……………………….howling terror the frightening din
………….rips great trees from the ground
….tosses the structures all around
………….raging malice haunting fright
………………twister spinning in the night
……………………….darkened clouds surging
…………….wind and rain merging
…..funnel of mighty hell
..tolls the death knell
…………terrors bloody ride
…………………..nowhere to hide
…………spinning away
…….from all that
…………..used to be
……..what we
…………called
………..this
………..life
A tornado comes and goes so quick
Sometimes revisiting on the same day
Air humid, breathing hard and thick
Best advice given…get out of its way
Sounds like freight train bearing down
Delivers this –Varoommmmmmmmmm
Next best advice--don’t live in a valley
Respite from twisters in Oklahoma town
Not possible— it’s tornado alley
Here’s the scoop
May 5, 1960…The date of the natural crime
Wilburton, Oklahoma…quiet and boring
Me…my life, smooth and in my prime
Outside, trouble brewing, rain pouring
No wind—then dark---storm clouds
Sudden change and all so loud
No way to stop---nature makes it way
Tornadoes F4 hit twice that day
Up one hill, down in the valley, another hill
A path right through main street
Wiped out fifteen blocks with shocking skill
Score tornado 16, town 0…no receipt
Sadly, sixteen dead, hundreds hurt
Think disaster, destruction, devastation
Hail equates baseballs—certain disconcert
Wind 250 miles per hour, an aberration
On a personal note
Mom, sister, and I alone
Little sister told to put football helmet on
I get only, “You better pray. Don't groan."
Three females in bathtub…no put-on
Scared, hoping this was a no drop zone
First cyclone over…it was no spoof
Uh, oh, second one took the roof---
But not us…Prayed and prayed
God was there, though fear stayed
What happens next...nothing good
Can’t drink the water…
Dysentery, typhoid, cholera—it could
Can’t go to school
Smushed-–classes postponed
Can’t go to church
Smashed---future unknown
Can’t find food
Red Cross helps pick up the tone
Friends hurt, one killed
One man up in the swirl…
Carried him about a mile—life unfulfilled
No limbs left—no head to twirl
People scared another will hit
The normal long gone—some split
Build shelters, that's the name of the game
Yet, life did go on... but nothing ever the same
We just go round and round
In endless circles
Hot and Cold
Always chasing eachother
Going no where
Ending up with nothing
Yet destroying everything
In our path
As we play
The same
Old
Games
(10/23/13)
I dream in tornado,
gray spinning
blade of pulsing
mother
fn
pain
Violent wind swirl
Unpredictable movement
Destruction certain
Dancing the tango
Multiple vortices twist
Rhythmic destruction
This simple tree...
Her branches a
Tree Clef staff for song
birds.
Her canopy a trapeze for these
squiggles, these squirrels.
This simple tree...
Her trunk a temple;
a spire to Heaven.
Her bark a canvas
for Northern moss.
This simple tree...
Her roots a roof
to burrowing beasts.
Her leaves a beetle's
green lunch munched.
This simple tree...
Her shade a cooling
respite for a
thousand forms.
This simple tree...
a welcome respite
for a thousand
flapping forms
from a thousand
Wint'ring grounds.
This simple tree...
whose vaulting arch,
itself a royal crown...
whose lyric swaying,
showing unseen winds...
whose quiet patience,
teaches eons, teaches time...
whose singular sangha
is a lone unalone story,
befriended and borrowed,
by all that live.
This simple tree...
husher of poets.
This simple tree.