The other day, I saw a man wearing a short trenchcoat. It was a dry day, and partly sunny, just like most of our days this winter. Maybe he was wearing it in the hopes that it might inspire the sky to give us a little of that much-needed rain. If I’m truly honest with myself, I have admit that I’ve made this drawing  for the same reason that I imagine the man in this drawing is wearing this coat. I’ve placed a thunder cloud in the background, though there are few thunder storms in this region, even during the wettest of rainy seasons. Maybe a drawing about the rain, of a man who is wearing a raincoat, all accompanied by the following haiku by the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Basho will bring the precipitation our gardens and mountains and reservoirs have been waiting for.

First winter rain–
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat

Posted by Ajuan Mance