In the mornings you weep, like a newly shawn sheep.
Through the day you change shape, like a drunk playful ape.
In the night you’re subdued, like a mole without food.
Then skywards you drift, like a Stannah stair-lift.

It’s these things that I love, my big, cloudy dove! (above).
And it’s these I’ll watch daily, like my DVD of Bill Bailey (gaily).
And I’ll never grow bored, nor will you be ignored (my reward).
And though you’re like condensation, there’ll be no segregation (based on nation)…
…as we wait together for, the inevitable, precipitation (semantic relation!)

© Mark Peacock. 2009.

(a cinquain)

Cloud sheep

Do not gambol

Nor do they run and jump

Unlike their earthbound eponyms

They scud.

© William R. Brennen. 2009.

White Lights - White Clouds

I saw a big hole in a large white cloud

I stretched out to reach it

My arms were not long enough.

Sunbeams filtered through in dazzling display

A chimney of white light called to me.

It was a ladder with no stairs

Or a robe of light heading straight for me.

I could not touch it so high above

This chimney of Light and of Love.

I saw the circular hole in the middle

I heard the notes of a flute and a fiddle

Sweet notes of instant recognition

While the white light radiated through

This strong stable heap of white cloud

I could not touch it, not allowed

It was not my time to be lifted up.

I saw this shimmering white cloud that afternoon

It spoke to me without speaking,

But I saw it with a third eye

A mystic concentration with due respect.

I sat down but felt raised up and hovering

I think my aura was uncovering

As a bit of Heaven in a chariot low

Shined down through this massive cloud

I could not go, was not allowed.

But with my heart’s eye I could see

This emanation of eternity

Reminding me the white clouds

And God’s ove are free.

© James Webb Wilson(Jim the Poet). 2009

Where Do Dream Clouds go to Die?

Where do dream clouds go to die

After marching across the sky,

Parading monuments for dreams and daring

To spark ideals and thoughts of caring,

To catch a dreamer’s eye and soul

To spur a dream and make it whole.

Do they fall off the edge of the earth,

Off the precipice of their whimsy and mirth?

One time in passing and then gone

Clipped by the reaper of the celestial lawn,

Falling off the stage one scene at a time

Disappearing without reason or rhyme.

Do they just float and flutter off

Into thin fronds feathery and soft

Off as a mackerel sky in a foreign land

Dissipating the mountain so grand

Breaking down a dream so suddenly dismissed

Passed on, deceased, but by a poet kissed.

© James Webb Wilson(Jim the Poet). 2009.

The Cloud

Oh, fluffy cloud,

So flat, so small,

Surrounded by

An azure pool.

Suddenly you grow bigger,

Making me shout ,

Look out,

There’s rain about.

Heavier you grow,

Dark as dusk,

Stretching across,

Like a mammoth tusk.

Slowly you fall to ground,

Drip, drip, drip,

Making a splattering sound.

And there you lay,

The sad remains,

Teardrops cry,

Down our window panes.

The sun comes out,

And you are not there,

We step outside,

To look up and stare.

There you are again,

Forming high above,

Floating gently,

like a crystal dove.

Clouds are with us,

Wherever we go,

You might not see them,

But you’ll always know,

Where there’s water,

There’s always a cloud,

It’s not just blue sky,

In which they’re allowed.

© Amy Whitewick 2009.

*******************

Over the high fells
Every hill has its own cloud
Every tree its shade

(Ullswater August 2007)

*******************

Huge gold sun cloud-crowned
Behind twinkling Runcorn
Crowding birds wing home

(driving home from Liverpool January 2006)

*******************

Through twin trees, harebells -
Carrying clouds shoulder-high
The Ben broods on blue

(Ben Nevis from Loch Eil, August 2005)

*******************

Huddling weather;
Cloud-smoke low in the forest
Breath of nereids

(Conwy Valley October 2004)

*********************

On Bowland summit
Sheep grazing in cloud
Into the unknown

(Bowland fells, Lancashire, August 2004)

********************

Blackcurrant time, dusk -
Sky on fire, mountains on fire,
Leaves scream in the wind

(7th July 2004 - a fierce, strange storm sweeps into Northwest Wales fro SW to NE)

********************

Wales wild under cloud
Sprinkled with sheep, splashed with cows
Green green grass of home

(June 2004)

*******************

Spring mountains muffled
Crouch for warmth over wildfire
Gorse gold is stunning

(Anglesey, April 2004)

*******************

Mountain Seraphim
Hymn in opalescent fire
A Holy sunset

(Snowdonia sunset over Menai Straits, Spring 2003)

*******************

The land is getting
Tall. Mountainous trees. Sheep kneel,
Clouds greet ripe heather

(Into Snowdonia, August 2002)

******************

Cloud-copying peaks -
Vesuvio, Verzasca,
Veils of Everest

(driving to Milan, July 2001 - cloudshapes copying the underlying mountains)

******************

Russia’s Sarychev Peak Volcano erupted for the first time in 20 years on 12th June 2009. This photograph was taken by the Astronauts aboard the International Space Station who where flying directly overhead.

It has been called one of the most dramatic Earth-science photo’s ever taken from space and shows the pillar of ash punching a massive hole in the cloud layer. The misty ‘cap’ on the ash plume is thought to be water condensing from air shoved upward by the rising ash column, similar to the iridescent pileus clouds.

You can read the full article on the spaceweather.com website.

The new Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine can give give information about clouds. For example nimbostratus, cumulis and cirrus information and weather and meteorology

A great information source for enthusiasts everywhere.