The Autobiography of Rain

The poems in Lana Hechtman Ayers’ The Autobiography of Rain explore the healing powers of art and nature in a world that is as ripe with beauty as it is rife with grief.

Fernwood Press Page for The Autobiography of Rain

Immovable Clouds 
Outside, snow falls like a dream
of snow falling,
coastal weather inscrutable
as my black cat curled
beside the woodstove.

Girls in sweeping hoop skirts
twirl vivid oil-paper umbrellas,
stroll the April parade—
Japanese lanterns aglow
against slow, gray sky.

One ruby Fuji apple dropped
by an onlooker rolls in the gutter—
a spark shorn of its wick.
Halts at a storm drain.
No one dashes to reclaim it.

It’s late afternoon
in the twenty-first century.
Silence is an attitude of shadow.
I turn from the drafty window,
my green tea still steaming.

Clouds swirl within
the bone-white cup,
whirling eddies,
snow drifts in pale spring light.
My life is far from over.
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“Ayers catches ephemeral moments in lines and in deft strokes as the poems in The Autobiography of Rain affix these instants onto monuments. The fickle and atmospheric weather of losses, revelations, and heartbreak shifts and shimmers. Meanwhile, the residue of a night of rain on pavement reflects what is brightest about the sun. These gorgeous poems reside in the heartbeat-sound of showers on a roof as well as the dazzle of the world after the rain. They bedazzle and go from gray to glow.”

—Oliver de la Paz, author of The Diaspora Sonnets

“In the beautifully titled The Autobiography of Rain, Lana Hechtman Ayers delves into the complex interplay of beauty and grief in the natural world. These engaging poems underscore the restorative power of art and nature, urging readers to cherish life’s simple pleasures. With memorable lines such as Rumor has it the night sky / is composed of crows,  and This is the year we said “I love you” over and over, Ayers’ voice captivates and draws you in. With keen empathy, Ayers notices the intricacies surrounding us, recognizing how each sound is a unique / song of pain, all while also celebrating the moments of joy that bring us together— your voice mingling with mine, more nights, / stars, moons, rain glow, gratitude & its gifts, more joy.  The Autobiography of Rain is a gift to readers—each poem in this collection showcases Ayers’ remarkable talent for capturing the essence of a moment through vivid imagery and lyrical language. This is a captivating and poignant collection of poems and a must-read for anyone seeking to explore the richness and complexity of the human experience. I could not put this gorgeous collection down.”

—Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides

“In Lana Hechtman Ayers new collection, The Autobiography of Rain, we are invited not to run for cover from the rain of life but instead to remove our jackets and get wet. In these generous, lyric-narrative, poems we find the autobiography of life, the poet’s and our own, we find the story of love and grief, of the body and of nature. How lucky to have a poet like Ayers calling out to us in the storm.”

—Matthew Dickman, author of Husbandry

“Compelling, elegant, and remarkably honest, The Autobiography of Rain is filled with stark, realistic poems that paint an intimate portrait of love, loss, family, identity, and the ever-present need for empathy. In these vibrant poems of nature and biography, Ayers showcases a true talent for imbuing the smallest human details with authenticity and layered meanings. Each poem maps out the human heart, in all its internal conflicts, with precision and grace. Overflowing with vivid and accessible language, The Autobiography of Rain is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging, reminding us that the sky above / never leaves us, / never abandons us.”

Reviews of The Autobiograpy of Rain

By Cynthia Neely for Oregon Poets Association

Lana Hechtman Ayers, in the The Autobiography of Rain, her sixth collection of poetry, claims not to be a painter. To a point, I gently disagree.... It is important to note the book is not called the biography of rain. This book is, after all, an autobiography: these poems inhabit rain, feel like rain, sound like rain. These poems help us see the colors rain sees. They touch all that rain touches.... The Autobiography of Rain offers us poems suffused with many colors, poems steeped in joy and a deep abiding love for the world the poet inhabits, as well as for those beings, both human and not, who touch her life.

By Barbara Lloyd McMichael in Our Coast Weekend

Newport poet Lana Hechtman Ayers’s distinctive style combines dreaminess, pathos and wordsmithery, and always makes for therapeutic reading. Her latest poetry collection, The Autobiography of Rain, offers more than three score poems that nourish and enchant. While deeply personal, as the title suggests, this volume also contains truths that will resonate with just about everyone.

By Michael Magee in Raven Chronicles

...At times, you forget which poem is which because they seem to make a long lyric narrative loop, a night train of the soul, or, to put it another way, themes woven and unwound like Penelope's loom each night to be re-woven again in the morning after sleep. This must be the point: nothing is lost when it is wrapped in feeling, and it is the poet's task to remember and remind us in an act of prayer...
—Michael Magee, author of Shiny Things and Terra Firma

By Lisha Adela Garica on Goodreads

Lana Hechtman Ayers latest collection, The Autobiography of Rain, is one of the best poetry books I’ve read in many years. This is my favorite of all her books as she leaps metaphorically to that numinous space where the everyday is mystical and profound...Her gift to the reader is an insightful gathering of revelations as if Neruda was sitting in her lap...
—Lisha Adela García, author of Blood Rivers and A Rope of Luna