“Four seasons in one day”
sang Crowded House and
as you draw nearer to the Equator
all the seasons happen
in every day’s cycle
In Tennerife, north side
of the island
you wake to blue skies
and yet already a wisp
of cloud pours over the lip
of Mount Teide like
the tentative sign of
an eruption by this
still hot to the touch
at the top, relatively
sleeping giant, but
as the morning wears on
the cloud finds it’s level
and spreads less threateningly
over the pine forests
below the crater edge
shrouding them in fog
on out over the banana
plantations that surround
Puerto de la Cruz
then on over the city itself
where, just after lunch
they deliver their own
micro-seasonal rain
hardly worth the
unfurling of an umbrella
but nurturing the bananas
as reliable as clockwork
except when the occasional
Atlantic storm disrupts
the proceedings
and having delivered their
promise, the clouds dissolve
and the season of
sunny evening takes their place…
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, kim881 in Poetics, invites us to write about “micro-seasons” after the Japanese custom of dividing their year not just into four seasons but into seventy-two “micro-seasons” such as ‘frogs start singing’ and ‘crickets chirp around the door’…
I love the title of your micro season, Andrew, very familiar, and alliterative with a full stop of ‘lunch’! I have also learnt quite a bit from your poem. I have yet to experience all four seasons in one day, perhaps two at most, nor have I been to Tenerife, so it was interesting to read about the difference in weather from morning to evening. I love the image of a wisp of cloud pouring over the lip of Mount Teide’, and the micro-seasonal rain after lunch ‘nurturing the bananas’.
Everyone should visit Tenerrife once – you start with lush tropical vegetation, go through Alpine like forest and when you drive into the caldera, you are in a blazing desert and a frozen sea of black volcanic glass. Then you take a cabke car to the top of the volcano where patches of snow lie next to gently smoking sulphur fumaroles and the ground is hot (and cold)!
This poem resonates. I live on the west coast and they say locally “If you dont like the weather, wait ten minutes. It’ll change.” Smiles.
Thanks Sherry – I take it that’s the North American West coast – reliably changeable with a lot of rain – Tennerife – mostly reliable sunshine…
I have spent time on Teneriffe on Christmas and we truly had all the seasons there when driving around, including winter when ascending Teide…. love the connection to a place.
Thanks Bjorn, last time I was there I noticed that restaurant menus were in Spanish, English, French and a Scandinavian language – apparently Nordic peoples and especially those from Iceland, count on the reiable weather in Tennerife to get away from the dark winter…
A poetic travelogue … I must go. [now, see what you have done]
You would love it Helen – I am unrepentant ☺️
I don’t know that I would enjoy all the seasons happening within the day’s cycle.😬
Sunny morning, small shower after lunch, lovely evening – consistent, predictable – what’s not to like – for a holiday – longer than that I would miss our British weather lottery 🤣
Well done, Andrew! Seems like just having four seasons does not fit the places you are talking about! Having them all in one day would keep you pretty busy!
Thanks Dwight! Perhaps I made it seem busy with words but truly, it’s very relaxed and if someone asked if the weather was good on your holiday there you wouldn’t even think of that micro-season of the after lunch shower…
Now that is one gorgeous title, Andrew! 😀 I especially love this part;
“In Tennerife, north side
of the island
you wake to blue skies
and yet already a wisp
of cloud pours over the lip
of Mount Teide….”
Thanks, Sanaa, who would not happily live in such a micro-climate! I first went to Tenerife with my first significant lover some 47 years ago, and the memory of the wisp of cloud is one of my enduring images from that trip…
Beautifully written, Andrew, and it sounds so delightful!
Thanks, Merril! Delightful is exactly what it is, a perfectly reliable holiday destination all round…
Tenerife sounds nice from your poem and comments Andrew. The four seasons in a day is often said of Melbourne in Australia too.
Your poem’s title reminds me of Kuala Lumpur, where it was somewhat a standing joke that when it rained, everyone knew it was 4 pm.
It is a characteristic of many places as you approach the tropics, Shaun – as for Melbourne, and Britain for that matter, they have very changeable weather, also due to their latitude in the scheme of weather but not the same daily reliable pattern. I’m sure you would like Tenerife…
“As reliable as rain after lunch in Tennerife” will be my new slogan, Andrew! You make this micro season. memorable indeed.
Thanks Dora – I can only hope your new slogan goes viral and leaves me an enduring, if obscure legacy, lol. Some years ago I wrote about the expression “Back to Square One!” here and despite it’s very niche origins, it has seemingly spread to every English speaking country…
This is what it is like to live in Manila.
All to do with latitude in the weather scheme of things, I think, Imelda…
This sounds fascinating. I would love to visit there.
A lot of Europeans take their holidays there because of the reliability of the weather, especially those who live with short days in Winter, but additionally, it is very beautiful…
Now I wish my husband was still sailing! He has been to Tennerife and says weather can be exactly as you describe so beautifully. Love the title too.
I very much enjoyed listening to you at OLN live. ❤️
I decided to give up on reading Monarch in favour of a tribute to Paul Durcan and his books of ekphrastic poems – glad you liked it – perhaps I should have chosen a longer one…
You’ll have to go one day Punam and I’m sure your husband will concur…