Li Zeyou, Member 65,190 from Jiangsu province, China, sent us his cloud inspired poem. We’ve paired it with an image by Nicholas Jiang of a silver lining moment over Daning Park, Shanghai.

The clouds are lonely,
They often walk alone in the vast sky.
When we are on the road and look up –
How carefree they are.

The clouds are lively,
They always cling together and form a whole.
When we stand on the mountaintop and look down –
They are like the sea.

The clouds are free,
They are always so unrestrained.
When we sit in the garden and observe –
They change endlessly.

The clouds are complex,
They always cover one another.
When we fly through the clouds in an airplane –
They are layer upon layer.

When you are at leisure,
You might as well look up at the sky.
The clouds – these interesting things,
Surely they are worthy of our admiration.

© Li Zeyou, May 2025

Jan Boles, Member 13,316, sent us his humorous cloud related limerick.  We have paired it with an image of a curtain of precipitation falling from a storm system over Charlo, Montana, US by Ruth Quist.

A cloud spotter, known as Horatio,
Was keen on words rhyming with “ratio.”
He often would sigh,
Looking up at the sky,
“That’s not ‘rain,’ it’s ‘praecipitatio.’”

© Jan Boles February 2024

Buckshot Dot, AKA Dee Strickland Johnson, sent one of her more recent poems.  The image we’ve chosen to accompany it is a sunrise over Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain by Lourdes Sanches Munoz

A BRILLIANT SUNSET

I saw a sunset, just this evening.
Out the window of my den.
‘Twas so lovely, so inspiring
I ran to fetch my camera in.
Vermillion clouds –
a dozen of them, ‘gainst a sky
deep turquoise blue!
By the time I’d found my camera, tho’,
alas, the show was through.

Still, I know I’ll keep it always
in the lens of my mind’s eye:
Those amazing brilliant
orange pink clouds
dancing in a turquoise sky.

Buckshot Dot* © 2020

Melody Serra, Member 56,638 from New York City, sent a poem she wrote about her membership and receiving our Cloud-a-Day emails.  Image:  A Circumhorizon Arc over Colorado, US.   © Keelin

Subject: Cloud-a-Day

 On August 29, 2021 I became a cloudspotter
                            member 56,638 of the Cloud Appreciation Society!
everyday since then, an email with a photo 
             taken by another member, of the sky, lover of blue
  to think that we are all part of the same sun-filled dome 
            to think that with our creative minds we can build shapes out of 
condensed water vapor 
            it all gives me chills	( the good kind )
  close to 600 emails have 
             brought me closer to
                                    skyscapes, landscapes, and seascapes around the world
                                                have taught me the difference between cirrus, cumulus, stratus, 
                                   cumulonimbus
                                   fluctus, asperitas, noctilucent, lenticular
                                              have taught me that the beams of light that shine through the gaps 
                                   in clouds, 
                                   like ladders of light reaching down to us, are called 
                                              crepuscular rays
                                   maybe i too will see the green flash one day
	                                      or the fluffy cumulus clouds reflecting on salt flats in Humahuaca
                                   or the optical effect, stunning color play, pearlescent
                                               called circumhorizon arc
		                                           for now i count myself so lucky, 
                                                                                  each sky greets me and beckons me
                                                                                                                       “what cloud do you see?”

© Melody Serra

Antonio Martínez, a calligrapher from Spain is passionate about clouds.  He told us, “I have dedicated 5 collages to Goethe’s poems in the original language, celebrating the work of Luke Howard: Atmosphäre, Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus, Nimbus. They are handwritten in gothic script, with a square-tipped metal nib and ink on Strathmore toned gray A4 paper”. The image above is “Stratus” by J W Goethe.

Cloud enthusiast, Simon Rickman, sent us this Haiku and accompanying image.  Seeing everyday objects in clouds (and other objects) is called Pareidolia and he told us this picture is a good example of a head in the clouds.

Cloud Face

it is no wonder
they call me ‘the daydreamer’
my head’s in the clouds!

© Simon Rickman

Chris Tetley, Member 10,338, sent us his recent poem and photograph.  He told us, “given the excessively dull and dreary weather we’ve had so far this season in the UK, the poem is a plea for winter cloud to be a little more considerate“.

Fairweather Friend

Clouds, I thought you were a friend,
But at present, I’m not so sure.
With cover and dullness slow to end,
And sunny hope you long obscure.

For why on many a winter’s day,
Do you stubbornly stay the same?
A landscape of endless gloomy grey,
And world trapped listless in your frame.

Then where your kindly clumpy mounds,
And their benign fair-weather wool?
When in summer sky, their sort abounds,
With these delights seems ever full.

I view this as a sky-drawn curtain,
The stage behind it being prepared.
And though duration looms uncertain,
It helps me through when I’ve despaired.

Yet I know that soon when all is set,
And brighter scenery is revealed.
I’ll my every complaint then forget,
As to the year’s new glory yield.

And I appreciate clouds need to gather,
To discuss, agree and plan.
But can you please reduce the blather,
For of this cloud, I’m not a fan.

© Chris Tetley

Guo Wei, Member 57,319, sent us a poem that he wrote after seeing dozens of large horseshoe vortex formations develop one after the other over Xiamen, China.  He has kindly translated it into English for us and sent a photograph he took of the sky that day.

Miracle

• An Unbelievable Afternoon of Seeing over a Dozen Big Horseshoe Vortex Clouds one after another

When the sky’s inspiration explodes on a windy afternoon,
The sparse shadows of things stretch across the serene pedestrian street,
Still in my white coat, many years,
Which has been nurturing a tiny flame within my heart.

The spectacle of thousands of horses galloping suddenly unfolds,
Accompanied by the background music of the childhood version of the Journey to the West,
Which rushes out from an unknown old shop.

It seems like an invisible vortex hidden in the grey background, stirring,
And spitting out naughty children like smoke rings,
As if the desire – the source of life’s drive?
Has materialized with nothing into a masterpiece.
The children line up and vault over the huge tree in the middle of the street one after another.

Last night I shouldn’t have lost my temper,
Argued with you about whether a colander can scoop water to wash your hair.
“There really are miracles.”
I wish to watch them with you now, my daughter,
How lovely is the world in your eyes?

I stand like a white fool, rooted to the spot,
Repeatedly checking everything that slipped away during each sleepy afternoon,
Afraid that the supposed awake is a dream,
Afraid that photos will disappear like horseshoe vortex clouds, dancing and leaving no trace,
Until the curtain falls, the sky is empty,
No one has looked through the ecstasy within my coat,
Like an invisible man, transparently crying, stirring,
The cries of the traders around that has been passed from mouth to mouth for centuries.
The waterfall of Dichondra shakes, hooves become lighter, grey-grey hue remains.

© Guo Wei 2024

Chris Tetley, Member 10,338, sent us this poem composed to encourage us to wonder what our lives would be like without clouds.  The image was one he took locally of the sky over Devon, UK.

The Gladness of Clouds

The sky would be an empty stage without its cast of varied cloud,
Lacking daily interest with no shapes its sphere to crowd.
Though sunny bright and pleasant, days would lose what cloudscapes bring,
And all those kindnesses and insults that our way they’re apt to fling.

And what would we then talk about to strike up conversation,
Those introductory lines expressing joy or indignation?
What future, outdoor outfitters that count on rain and snow,
The meteorological media whose raison d’être cloud is to know?

And what of temperate gardens that enjoy cloud cover’s hues,
All who so much benefit from its shifting greys and blues?
And those who like the chance to snuggle up safely with a book,
When a storm is raging beyond brave walls and cosy sheltered nook.

And where would be our literature, much music and the arts,
Without the different cloud types and the influence each imparts.
Gone would be the rivers and lakes on which we so rely,
Not fed from heaving boulder-burdened blister-bursting sky?

Then what of useful reference; what becomes of cloud computing,
And that foggy place to have your head where absent thought finds its rerouting?
No ninth to share its happiness, or edged with silver lining,
Misty metaphor forever lost and in need of redefining.

Heavenward contemplation would be little but blue-sky thinking,
Much lost as a source of inspiration, if sky from sea no longer drinking.
And leaden would lose its meaning as dread divide of sky and land,
Weather from being moods arbiter, then little help and rather bland.

No more those clouds chameleon-like that mark days start and end,
As from and towards night’s sunless vault they with glamour arrive and wend.
Unnoticed as if not present for every hour then in between,
Horizon’s margin brief inflamed, in distant solitude serene.

Then what of this society that so appreciates their wonder,
From timorous playful newborn cubs to roaring lions of fearsome thunder?
Where every form and unique shape that commands its keen attention,
Acquires an immortal presence, and to the wide world gets a mention.

A sky without vast mounds of vapour, wind-jostled or scenic set,
Would be a lesser world for all where hope and rainbow never met.
And I could no more live without this flock that cossets Gaia,
Than I could its welcome shade; its forms, and fancy to inspire.

© Chris Tetley

Sara Austin Bailey, member 50,249 sent us this cloud-inspired poem from her home in North Carolina.

Nick Houvras, Member 7,367 sent us his poem “A Wish”

Image: Crepuscular Rays over Somerset, England © Helen Crawley

A Wish

Don’t you wish you were a cloud?

Flying free where ever the wind sent you!

Looking down from up above on sunny ground!

Or wet leaves you sent your water to.

And then you slowly disappear from the heavens that held you.

Just as the earth holds us we too go with or without a sin.

But everyone asks where did that cloud go?

And so do all of us here now on Mother Earth!

© Nick Houvras, 2023

Minnie Biggs, Member 4,330, recently sent her poem about the skies over Bhutan, which is situated on the Himalayas’ eastern edge. We’ve accompanied it with an image from Michael Ellis “Aladdin’s lamp spotted over Bhutan, South Asia“

Go to Bhutan

Cloud heaven
we are looking at the clouds in the distance
we are below the clouds
we are in the middle of the clouds
We are above the clouds,
Looking at more clouds
in the clouds is different
Than above or below
Wet damp not rain wet
And the mountains
That meet the clouds
Embrace the clouds
Are embraced by the clouds
Intermingle with the clouds
seldom one without the other
In Bhutan
Clouds
Heaven

© Minnie Biggs

Simon Rickman, a cloud enthusiast, was inspired by our Cloud Poetry section to send us a Haiku he wrote a few years ago.  He also sent the featured photograph taken on 7th April 2023 near his home in the UK.

purposed clouds glide by
on missions to somewhere else
leaving me behind

© Simon Rickman

Kathy Miles is a poet living in West Wales; her fourth full collection was published by Indigo Dreams in 2020.  This is a poem she wrote about Luke Howard with a photograph by Jan Boles of Anti-crepuscular rays over Idaho, US.

Cloud-Whisperer
after Luke Howard, 1802

He named them because he could.
For the thrill of cirrus on his tongue,
cumulus and stratus a banquet
on the palate. Obsession ached
inside him, the need to claim
and classify. The logic of shape.

He envied their resolve,
the purpose that kept them feral,
wandering from place to place
like nomads, always heading
to the next clear patch of sky
that argued its blue emptiness.

Seeing them submerged in sea
or lake, he wanted to raise
them like a grounded swift,
throw them high as he could,
then call them back to his side
by the names that he had gifted.

Now I watch their floss and bustle,
like a woman hurrying to work
worries building inside her; ragged
fractus, weary with the day,
shapeshifting into mist, keeping
its nose to the grindstone.

Their bellies are full of storm
and fire, while mine has emptied
of passion. I think of the man who
organised the skies; how nothing
pleased him more than waking
to quilts of nimbus, cirrostratus.

© Kathy Miles 2023

Chuck Metcalfe, Member 61,468, sent us a poem he wrote in November 2023 and a photograph he took at his camp in Stockton, New York, that inspired it.

Ladder to the Clouds

If I could build a ladder to the clouds, we could climb so high into the sky.
We could frolic and play, and stay all day, just the two of us;
while we jump and bounce from Stratus to Cumulus.
We might sing and dance on Altostratus; or perchance ride the mares’ tails of Cirrus Uncinus .
Amongst the Cirrus we would search freely in, until we find a parhelion; petting that sundog we could do, and maybe see its halo too.
Nimbostratus would not ruin our day, if above the rain we were able to stay.
Even Cumulonimbus with its flashy show would look different from above you know.
We would have our own park without the crowds, if I could build a ladder to the clouds.

© 11/17/2023 Chuck Metcalfe

Leah is a cloud enthusiast who regularly watches the clouds from her window at work. 

Image:  Fibratus over Yarra Glen, Australia by Phil Chapman

Whispers in the Sky

Soft whispers drift in endless skies,
Where clouds like dreams in silence rise.
They dance in hues of white and gray,
A gentle pause in life’s busy day.

They paint the dawn in shades of gold,
A canvas vast, a story told.
By noon they gather, thick and deep,
Guarding secrets that they keep.

At dusk, they blush in twilight’s glow,
As day concedes to night’s soft flow.
In moonlit nights, they softly glide,
A silver veil where stars can hide.

Transient, free, they roam the blue,
Ephemeral as morning dew.
They teach us that to drift and roam,
Is sometimes how we find our home.

Vyacheslav Konoval is a poet from Kyiv, Ukraine. Many of his poems have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian and Polish but this is one he wrote in English for CAS members to enjoy.

Image: “A Sunset over Kiev, Ukraine” © Vera Uzhva

A dark blue cloud crawls across the sky

A dark blue cloud crawls across the sky,
It rains every day.
As if punishment is pouring from God.

Fluffy fresh caresses,
crowded street of
stockpiled ice fragments.

My body doesn’t obey
It seemed to be dozing,
limps tiredly in laziness.

© Vyacheslav Konoval

Sue Shaw, Member 55,742, is enjoying her membership of the Cloud Appreciation Society.  She told us she’s been travelling  lately and watching a lot of lumpy clouds and finding shapes and faces almost endlessly.  It inspired her to write the two poems below.  She says  they are “similar, but different— and are products of that shape finding”

Image:  A Cumulus elephant spotted over Geelong, Victoria, Australia spotted by Heather Prince

Clouds Change and Rearrange!

It can take a cloud but seconds
To change its shape or place…
To re-form from a castle
To a dragon or a face!

Why…with a lot of lumpy clouds
You can read a fairy tale.
By looking all across the sky
In a zig-zag sort of trail.

There’s a princess in a lovely gown
And the castle…her abode…
The alligator in the moat
The prince…but as a toad!

There’s a puppy and a kitten
And a flying bird or two…
A monster and a gremlin…
All in shades of white on blue!

You can create a story line
By reading what is there,
With just imagination
And ice crystals in the air!

To play ‘pretend’ is so much fun
With daydreams in your mind
When you relax and watch the clouds…
But be careful, for you’ll find

That if you wait, your cast will change,
And the players that you’ve got…
Will all drift off and fade away…
And you’ll need a brand new plot!

Faces?

There are faces in the clouds–
Monsters wrapped in stormy shrouds…
Or a laughing, pug nosed leprechaun,
Or someone with a top hat on!

An alligator–snout and eyes
A giant fish–a whale-sized prize!
Dogs and puppies, kittens, cats
Birds, a butterfly and bats!

Castles, towers…places where
Rapunzel might let down her hair!
Realistic or a fantasy…perhaps some fairy tales
Where dragons and white unicorns have golden horns and scales!

Just sit back on a cloud-rich day
And let your mind run wild
It doesn’t matter what your age–
A Senior, teen, or child….

When you’re in a laid back situation
With just a bit of imagination…
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!…
Are carved in the clouds of a summer sky!

© Sue Shaw

Melanie McDowell, Member 58,909 thoroughly enjoys her membership of the Cloud Appreciation Society.  She told us “I am a poet and a lot of my poetry takes inspiration from the ever changing West of Ireland skies.  I also love reading others’ poetry, both contemporary and classic.  During Covid, I began the practice of choosing a word and poem for each day so I have built up a large bank of poetry, a lot of it sky inspired”.   We’ve paired her poem with an image by Tom Jenner, “A fair weather cloud day over Valentia Island in the south west of Ireland”

Home Turf
Sky thick as cream.
Ski slope clouds
lean into mountains.
Whitethorn bends arms
laden with blossom.
Grass banks quiver green.
Algaed mountain pass
through clods of cloud.
Rain reassures its patter.
Tarmacadam river
sheens purple.
Fuschia bells just
starting to ring out.
Mall Go Slow.
Rough as turf,
home.

© Melanie McDowell

Lucia Wilson was delighted to see the Cloud Appreciation Society featured on BBC Breakfast recently with an interview with Gavin Pretor-Pinney. It reminded her of this poem that she wrote over 10 years ago as she was reflecting on how often people in London move around the city without looking up.

Have You Seen the Sky Today

Alarm clock
Bathroom mirror
Dodgy reflection
Breakfast TV
Chirpy presenters
Caffeine injection
Underground warriors battle for seats
Struggle for dominance
Office door
Computer switch-on
Lights and…

.. ACTION!

Email, voicemail,
males and females
Greetings, meetings,
decisions, decisions
Outcome, plans and human factors
Negotiation, confrontation, solutions and laughter.

Some flirty lies, as time flies, the day nearly over
The players bow to mute applause,
Retreat commences
Journey reversed, routine well-rehearsed
with occasional abstentions

Alarm set
eyes close as sleep lays prey
But here’s a thought before you dream

Have you seen the sky today?

by Lucia Wilson / www.luciawilson.co.uk

Image Credit: Adrian Wakefield, Altocumulus stratiformis undulatus, also known as a “mackerel sky”, spotted over West London, England

This is the first of two poems by Patricia Laurence, Member 11,781.  She wrote this following the poetry workshop that she attended as part of the Orkney Sky Gathering.

Two                                       Contrails

  in the                                 sky

     had                              formed

       an X                       was it

          a kiss                a cross

             X marks        the spot

               a choice    a sum

                     a  wrong

                      answer

               look           again

             it                      drifts

           and                      fades

         smudges                   into

       nothing-                        ness

    so after                              all

perhaps                                   a  kiss

Patricia Laurence, May 2024

Image credit: A contrail filled sky over Wimborne in Dorset, England by Lindsay Gray

David Brown wrote to us saying “at the time of writing I was living on a hill in rural Northland, NZ. Very late one night I stepped outside and saw the strangest cloud formation I’ve ever seen: thin, perfectly regular lines of cloud stretching across the sky. They looked for all the world like the perfect lines drawn in sand by a Japanese wooden rake; you could see the stars between them and the undersides were lit up by the moon. It struck me like bars of a window. I went inside and wrote this simple haiku:”

Moonlight rakes the clouds
Etching fine silver lines that
Starlight fears to cross

© David Brown

Image Credit: A view above the cloud streets, Union, Indiana, US. © Beth Fluto

Anette Prehn, Member 63,419, appreciates the sky from her home in Denmark.  This poem was translated for her by Heidi Flegal, who suggested she send it to us.  It was used as lyrics, set to music by Rasmus Skov Borring in 2019.  Image:  Altocumulus with virga over Denmark © Soren Hauge

Like Shifting Clouds on High

A cloudscape ever-changing,
an endless voyage in the sky:
travellers re-arranging
their shapes as they go by.
In splendid, silent swirls they show
that wonders come and wonders go.
They offer up a lesson,
this whimsical procession
of shifting clouds on high.

As children we lay gazing
at fairy tales in shades of white.
In dappled sunlight lazing
we felt profound delight.
To see it through a childʼs bright eyes
– this big parade of small goodbyes –
recalls whatʼs lost, yet seeing
brings back the joy of being
with shifting clouds on high.

The boundless white collective
that travels on the windy tide
gives us a new perspective,
and mirrors whatʼs inside.
From Natureʼs wisdom take your cue.
She says: “Find that courageous you!
Your heart from joy and sorrow
can shape a new tomorrow
like shifting clouds on high.”

By Anette Prehn, Member 63,419 (© 2019)

Yvonne Gray sent us this ‘group poem’ written during a very enjoyable and productive creative writing workshop that was held at the Cloud Appreciation Society Orkney Sky Gathering  last week.  Image: A sunset over the Isle of Shapinsay, Orkney Islands © Peter Amsden

Clouds

clouds to make stories from
clouds to make dreams of
cloud – a shawl round the hills of Hoy
cloud – a warning. Something just over the horizon

cloud – a backdrop for the sunset
cloud forever changing
clouds that swiftly pass – or linger
cloud – a harbinger

cloud that carries precious rain
clouds soft as pillows

we feel cloud when we’re enveloped in cloud
but see nothing
when we see clouds, we can’t be in them
although we wish to

cloud for the fiery sunset
cloud for the artist’s vision
cloud for music’s inspiration
cloud for the poet’s revelation

by Mark Donovan, Yvonne Gray, Patricia Laurence, Mike Nordin, Carien van Zwol

Stromness, Wednesday 8 May 2024

Moira Lazarus is a song-writer and poet from London.  This is a poem she wrote a few years ago, just watching the London sky darkening.  Image: A sunset over Shepherds Bush, London, UK. (Red sky at night, Shepherd’s delight). © David Stening

From My Bedroom

I lie on my back and watch clouds travel
slow and thick
inked by the falling dusk, folds of velvet
blanking out the light.

This, then, is night.
A tipping over into another world,
an encroaching spell.

The sky holds pewter clouds now and is the colour of moonstone.
Second by second they are darkening faster,
blackening the roofs, hovering over chimneys like old smoke,
the sun almost gone.

Inside, closed curtains and artificial light prepare to
ward off the visceral intensity of night.

But I would like to fly
straight into this sky
ride the clouds to wherever they blow.
I would like to let the wild night flow.

Dawn will be here soon enough.

© Moira Lazarus, October 2016

Paul Davies, Member 28,330. wrote this descriptive piece to share with us.  We’ve paired it with an image of Zunderdorp, Gemeente Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands   © mercy

Staring out the window,
wondering why those cotton-wool balls
which look like mammoths
or a score of shrubs shoulder-to-shoulder
don’t over-fly my garden in smaller clumps
the size of cows or sheep or rabbits or birds

I mean
why are these clouds so large
is there some gravitational attraction
which keeps those visible water particles
together in bundles of roughly similar size

© Paul Davies

Nick Houvras, member 7,347 is a longstanding member of the Cloud Appreciation Society and sent us one of his cloud related poems. We’ve paired it with a photograph from our Photo Gallery of a full moon over Bigfork, Montana by Ruth Quist.

Clouds

The clouds are the roof over our head curiously they break apart and you see the blue sky And sun above.
At night there my appear a star winking at you.
Or a big white round full moon that comes partly through.
The oceans adrift in the sky above but no sail boats there flying high.
Just occasionally white streaks planes leave behind like trails one can walk on.
You maybe, so for now just say hi, high to the clouds in the sky!

© Nick Houvras 2022

Holly Payne-Strange, Member 52,979, from New Jersey was enjoying the clouds at Thanksgiving when she dreamt up this poem.  We’ve paired it with an image of a Circumzenithal Arc over Broadway, NYC, US by Judy Schramm

To Have the Honor of a Cloud

Ice crystals in the sky,
Reflecting sunlight, conjuring shadow
An ever moving gallery of whimsy.

It sounds like magic.

Surely it should be, by all rights
This beauty we ignore, day by day.
I think it’s because they’re so far away,
Glory and valor we assume is out of reach.

There’s a certain proud nobility about them,
Stately and serene.
It all seems so easy, slow, even boring.
An illusion fostered by distance and assumption.

I can’t help but think
That if only we looked,
Really looked, and noticed, and appreciated,
Then maybe grace could be an everyday occurrence.
Maybe we would notice.

Lofty ideals, unencumbered and honest,
Could curl above us
Natural as the wind.
Maybe generosity would need no excuse
And sincerity would be easily accepted,
Suspicion and shame falling like shadow,
To some distant terrain we can’t imagine.

I have to say,
When I think of you,
I only see the clouds.

© Holly Payne-Strange

Kate Edge, Member 30,633, wrote this piece whilst busily working on new cloud paintings for an exhibition.  We’ve accompanied her text with one of her previous paintings, “Foel Drygarn”

We bring peace to you now and forever more.

We are the motion of love resplendent.

Our journey is to cover earth with

love’s nourishment -to feed mankind

all the seeds sown by the Creator.

We pass all manner of changes below

but we are the circles of divine motion

breathing over the turbulence on earth.

Cloud awakening means to know the

invisible that we carry and to carry it to

the heart of others .

We are a living prayer.

We evoke the remembrance of the eternal beauty in all.

© Kate Edge 2022

Romano Zeraschi sent us this recent cloud inspired poem.  We’ve paired it with a sunrise over Sumirago, Varese, Italy by Paolo Bardelli.

Nuvole:
anime che svolano
addensano
e svaporano
cartografie di sogni
illusioni.
Stampigliano promesse
scambiano timidi baci
e umide di timidi amori
vezzose e libere
scorrono e sbrigliano
nel superno abisso
senza paura.
Dipingono
cose che vorremmo
e non sappiamo
o ci fanno paura
minacciose
quando avanzano orridamente scure
per poi pentirsi
e piangere
e allora è una promessa
un pegno assoluto
uno squarcio che viene dal blu
dentro la fossa
del nostro esistere
giù nei meandri delle nostre attese.
Eccole che finalmente di nuovo scorrono
e sfarfallano rappacificate
eccole che indugiano pigre
decorando i plurimi cieli con nobili medaglie
di smalti ialini
e poi madrepore, ventagli di gorgonie e coralli.
Fantastiche creature:
talvolta assumono il tratto di un topolino
e allora paiono squittire
a volte son volpi, farfalle, uccelli
e allora si attende un guaito
il cinguettio garrulo di un fringuello, d’un cardellino civettuolo.
Più spesso scorrono liberamente festose come alunne d’un primo giorno di scuola
o s’indovinano in ricreazione
immerse in un fervore di beatitudini
dimentiche d’ogni campanella.
Osserviamole ora per ora
seguiamone le tracce nell’inseguimento infinito
mutevole ed eterno:
vederle in adunata
stringersi in circolo come sorelle
ci paiono intonare di lassù un coro
per poi obbedire ad un cenno imperscrutabile
e allontanarsi per punti cardinali diversi
a oltrepassare l’orizzonte o morire prima
magari a ovest, sciogliendosi nel tramonto.
E al mattino
rivestite di bianco
quando germogliano appena al primo orizzonte visibile
sbocciarsi poi in eteree
quasi fragranti e revolute forme
che si allontanano
divergono e poi s’adunano
accavallandosi in canyon e radure
e precipizi
e burroni
o talora vicendevolmente sgranarsi a festoni
in bianche molliche d’immaginarie catene
colline e pianure
e dissomiglianti montagne
disegnando .
Accade anche che una nube si compiaccia in splendido isolamento:
resti alta allo zenit
o sfiori gli orizzonti per una ronda circolare
d’una missione compunta e segreta.
Albe e tramonti susseguono
ed è allora che si ammantano di violetto
o in più tenui ametiste
tramutando in arancio o porporino.
Veleggiano in grumi vacui
in eburnei fiocchi galleggiano
pullulando talvolta in purpurei amorini
E non raramente si espandono
circonflesse o lenticolari
o si aggregano, rabbuiandosi in cumuli e nembi.
Man mano, il Grande Atlante si sfoglia:
isole e atolli e lagune compaiono
i reef d’una barriera corallina
istmi e favolosi fondali
e penisole e continenti
un tettonico scivolar di placche
milioni di anni in poche ore
minuti del nostro esistere.
Lassù c’è vita
condensa e compatta strati e substrati
ere geologiche in ore o minuti
e poi pianeti, costellazioni
lo sciame luminoso dei cirri, asteroidi vaporosi e soffici
e può anche accadere che irrompa un bolide non si sa da qual vento sospinto.
Ma questa è scienza
meteorologia astratta
geologia e geografia insieme
inesatta e purissima astronomia
quand’esse son lassù a giocare invece per gli eterni bimbi
per i cuori dell’infanzia
per noi solamente
per noi
piccoli e sperduti principi d’un pianeta perduto.

© Romano Zeraschi

Annie Dillard, Member 46,119 sent us an anecdote of an encounter from a small ship in Antarctic waters. We’ve paired it with an image from “Cloudface 88” of Lenticularis over Skarsvåg, Nordkapp, Finnmark, Norway

“Over a long life I’ve learned that the meaning of this sight is a handy thing to know.

From a small ship in Antarctic waters I saw a stack of lenticular clouds and thought HERE’S TROUBLE.

We pulled into a station and those manning it said, Go to the hurricane harbor.

We toodled off to the safe harbor. It was fully occupied by the Chilean Navy.

We had no choice but to head out for sea room. If we were going to be helpless in a storm, we’d best go where

we wouldn’t hit anything. I’d often read about “sea room” and here it was.

We bucked and tilted –probably used a lot of gas–and were just fine.

Later I found a similar stack of lenticular clouds almost permanently over the peak of Washington’s Mount Baker”.

© Annie Dillard

Lou Piccolo enjoys reading poetry and recently submitted this Haiku inspired by the sky. We’ve paired it with an image from our Photo Gallery of a spine-like contrail over Chester, England by Michael Hearne.

Clouds embroidering

white criss-cross stitches on a

bright summer-blue sky.

Buckshot Dot, AKA Dee Strickland Johnson, wrote this poem in 1940 when she was 9 years old.  The image we’ve chose to accompany it is by Linda Holtby, Member 20,966, of faces in the clouds over the Hamble river, England.

THE OLD OLD MAN

His beard is so long it touches his toes.
If I were to paint him, he’d have a red nose.

He does not talk, nor gather a crowd,
For this old old man — is only a cloud.

© Dottie Jean Strickland* 1940, age 9

Bonnie Boothroyd was driving and when she came over the crest of a hill and before her was a fascinating skyscape which inspired this poem.  We’ve paired it with an image from our gallery of Cumulonimbus over Bosse, Belgium © Sunwalker

Layers

The sky overhead hangs low,   leaden

threatening my mood

In the distance though,  a wide clear patch of fading blue

And off near the horizon

identically long and narrow

ephemeral            wingless            airships            hover

Yet another layer beyond

framed by the darkening springtime sky 

Cumulonimbus

explode to altitudes so

high they capture the glow 

of a sun       already set

and I wonder,   for folks

beneath those sun swelled clouds

does the sky hang

dark and low?

                                                b mackenzie boothroyd

Kathleen Janick, member 49,856, recently wrote this poem inspired by fog on the coast of Maine, USA

Ric Johnson wrote this poem after walking alongside the River Weaver in Cheshire, UK and was inspired by the clouds that appeared overhead. You can see more of his work on his website.

SKY PEBBLES

Tight knit, these pebbles
Although not knitted at all
If our brains were in place.

Magically magical
But truly, touchingly magical
Though impossible to touch.

As if some god had woven them
Having shouted at stray clouds
To form up and bunch in tight.

Just letting us know
Down here but looking up
That some gods value beauty.

Whether knit one, pearl one
Is this god’s speciality
Is unknown to me.

However tightly knitted they seem
We know each pebble
Has its own resolve in place.

The resolve to be fluidly individual
Unmindful of watchers
Careless of admiration.

And, of a sudden
As I looked
Change and separation all around.

Pebbles unformed themselves
Indifferent to me, or the god
And how we thought of them.

No longer pebbles
Neither galleons nor dragons
Whales, pigs nor eagles.

But spectacle and grandeur
Clouds shaping, reshaping
Each day of our lives.

Well, fancy that!

© Ric Johnson

Buckshot Dot, AKA Dee Strickland Johnson, sent us this poem reflecting on sky.  We’ve paired it with this mixed sky over the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia by Ebony Willson, Member 53,124

The Sky Without Clouds

A day without clouds is the sky at its least.
We had one here just recently.
Be they piles, or wisps, or fantastic shapes,
they continue to fascinate me.

They pose, slowly move, or they change all the time.
They’re now like a scatt’ring of sheep —
hurrying, scurrying, playing around
just below tops of the high mountain peaks.

© Buckshot Dot, AKA Dee Strickland Johnson 2022

                                ~ ~ ~ ~~ 
                    *AKA Dee Strickland Johnson

Keshet Amalia Wistenberg recently sent us this poem to share with the CAS community. We’ve paired it with an image from our Photo Gallery by Ernesto Astiazaran of a joyful cirrus face over Tucson, Arizona, US.

Vantage Point

Fribbling, trotting,
In circles abounding,
Our smidgens of forms
So dear, yet so far.

We click and we squabble,
Enwrangled, surrounding,
By godlies, by froundies,
By tresses of star.

They drift and they float
And they sweep up the foundlings,
Who live in their castles,
Their dreamy memoir.

They follow, they peer at
We short-sighting groundlings,
And ‘member it all
In their mountains on par.

When angry, we quarrel,
With teeth, steam abounding,
When they do, they weep,
As they know what we are.

We’re boorish, we’re legged,
We’re scraggle-pip-thounding,
We’re dirty and little
and thoughtless, wind scar.

They weep and they roar,
Erupt, all propounding,
They do so as schedule
Makes bare who they bar.

For us, we’re the peasants,
sca-venging, sca-rounging,
And them all the king, and the chief
And the tsar.

We imagine a vastly
Built ever so rounding,
For us in the center,
The jam in the jar.

‘Truly?’ ‘Tis factin?’
We shriek, throbbing, pounding,
For deep’st we know’st
Our knowings off par.

The clouds, are our windows,
From here to the bounding,
Old boundary of here
To the great world their from,

The clouds are our windows,
From here to the bounding,
Old boundary of here
To the great world to come.

© Keshet Amalia Wistenberg

David Oscarson, supporting member 40614 sent us this poem he recently composed. It centres around falling snow and encroaching clouds that cover the mountains.

Sherman Schapiro, Member 56,083, sent this short poem inspired by our Halloween Cloud-a-Day – an Altocumulus ‘supercilium’, a cloud term yet to be recognised as an official one, spotted haunting the sky over San Anselmo, California, US by Lee FitzGerald (Member 50,400).

Heavenly “Boo!”

Eerie skies above,
like tentacles descending.
Clouds for Hallowe’en.

© Sherman Schapiro