‘California Cloudscapes’ is a poem by Jeanie Greensfelder that was originally published in Birdland Journal 2019 – we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

California Cloudscapes by Jeanie Greensfelder

The sky solid blue, your gallery
disappoints. I await the next show.

Give me a full circle exhibit,
a different artist in each direction,

a cumulus haven where sun-lit gods
and harp-playing angels lounge.

Surprise me with a Mount Shasta mirage,
a Disney display of dragons and dinosaurs,

or the drama of an El Greco storm, one that
reduces me, puts me in my place.

Let me study the brush strokes and guess
artists from baroque to surreal.

Show me an orange, yellow, blood-red sunset,
invoking nature’s Edward Munch scream.

Bring on Georgia O’Keefe puffballs,
Van Gogh swirls over grassland,

even a Rothko mist, but please no grey washes,
those ho-hum shows that go on and on.

(Published in Birdland Journal 2019)