Lines

1. Lung Ta

Lung Ta, wind horse,
symbol of speed,
left to endure
Tibetan clouds –
cloth to cold wind,
multi-colour,
cotton or silk tied to long strings…
their prayer flags woven in peace & compassion
to blow upwards as offerings to the Divine
on mountain tops between
Lhasa & Kathmandu…
like an infinite washing line.

2. Good Fortune

I never looked at us this way.
Bits of ourselves in suspension in-between
grass & gossip sky;
linen alive in Shetland blue,
serene, so white…
like talking sails
tied to our northern latitude –
from line to line, life entangled,
clipped to resist to the tsi-tsi
echoed in wind,
through riding songs.

© Nat Hall. 2007.

i stopped to watch
the rain today
fall helplessly
from the sky,

drizzle down
through sunday’s sleep
feel the cloud’s heart cry

painted from
the window seat,
a scene
as life goes by,

feel the meloncholy
of which it speaks,
without confusion
as to why.

© CHIIPMUNK. 2007

East Sussex, UK

BEYOND THE CLOUDSPOTTER’S GUIDE.

Who should now delineate
the armorial of clouds?

There are the numerable
species and their principal
conformations, but not one
is stable.
Evolution
is their only constancy
throughout imaginable
time.
Who would begin to list
aeons of instant changes,
to parse them for patterns and
revelations?
Only some
mad blazoner, king of arms
obsessed with limitlessly
quartering infinity.

© Rebbla. 2007

Your Face

I saw your face in the clouds one day;
wise, thoughtful and smiling!

I saw you face from far away crossed by a jet’s vapor trail
so what can one say?

An angel, a blessing, a curse or despair?
I know full well that no one will remember or care.

I saw your face in the clouds that vanished into the air,
without a word to say!

© Nick Houvras. 2007

France.

Weather or not…

Every cloud has a silver lining
So they say
But not today.

I set off this morning, my head in the clouds
The weekend was near
Good reason to cheer.

I was walking on air, a spring to my step
But it wasn’t long
Before it all went wrong…

In those muggy moments before a storm
Beware the stifling suffocation
Of optimistic elation…

The Boss, a notable tyrant, had a face like thunder
Oh, oh, watch out!
There’s trouble about!

“Let’s not cloud the issue”, the boss roared.
“Your job’s on the line!”
(It had to be mine.)

It never rains but it pours
Is certainly true.
Has it happened to you?

The Boss blustering and threatening
Stormed out of the room
With a thunderous BOOM!

In a fog of confusion I weathered the storm
Worked like a whirlwind, a roaring cyclone
I blew up a great tempest and huge squally dust clouds.
I scorched through my work sweat poured down around me
I had the wind in my sail
To no avail…

Needless to say I left under a cloud
Sunless and dreary
Drizzly and weary.

But that’s blown over now; I’m on cloud 9
Got a new job
And the outlook is fine!

©Jacqueline Mai April 2007

Sussex UK.

A LAST JUDGEMENT

His memory’s first
clouds denied him salvation,
louring over flames
and massed swathes of fugitives.

The panorama
left no space within the frame
for shelter. Terror
spread wide beyond the gilding.

He would never read
the legend, always rushing
past into futures
where clouds stilled his thoughts in dread.

© rebbla, Sussex. UK.

East Sussex, United Kingdom

A Cloud Sonnet

Clouds of the skies are nothing like the sun
Rain proves more cooling than what shade they shed
A brilliant moon grants a victory won
And the way through the snow has more solid a tread
But you, you are so fair, so free
Flowers spared weeds or a blossom without stem
Like so much wool scraped on an air dead tree
Cotton more free than the hands that once picked them
And yet you, you are all around
Wisped whither you will – still you choose to linger
And share with us that sudden sound
That spoils summer days without pointing a finger
When it’s done we’ll run, long for the sun we want
Done with fun save one – I stand there non-chalant

© Jonathan Freeman.

Contrails.

What would Howard

if, when towered

Cumuli

or Cirri flowered,

what would he have thought or written,

if, above the fields of Britain,

up on high,

and playful as an Ahrimanic kitten,

he had seen stretch right across the blue

contrails from aeroplanes? But never flew

aught but dragonfly

then,and birds and bats, and other insects too.

Or if Shelley

rising early

and raising eye

to his clouds of loved Italy,

had seen planes through a widened rent

in the broken woof of that wind built tent

(off to Dubai?)

leave contrails there where stratus never went?

Now that clouds are surrogated

the vault itself is violated.

Techno sky!

How can antidotes then be created?

Maybe only if we’re able

When round about swarm toil and trouble

like incubi

to create a blue bell bubble.

By this I mean an inner space.

Out there cruel prowls the Wolf of fearsome face

and dark, insistent cry.

Within, a Sun illumined, Sun warmed Samothrace.

© Stephen Schaffhauser.

Sussex UK.

I would dream of scents,
walled-in, rising in sunlight,
a perfect garden
for quietus. Over time,
I added clouds to cool me.

© rebbla, Sussex. UK.

THE CLOUD’S LAMENT

A cloud’s gotta do what a cloud’s gotta do!
You think we enjoy destroying the blue?
It’s all right you pestering, “Please don’t rain!”
But clouds that don’t burst are in awful pain.

It isn’t as if we can choose where we go,
We’re sent wherever the four winds blow.
The sun will always stand out from the crowd
But, rain or shine, a cloud is a cloud.

That’s how it is and has always been
For us puddle-makers – it’s not that we’re mean;
We’d like you to play under skies of blue
But a cloud’s gotta do what a cloud’s gotta do!

© Celia Warren 2007 UK

Cagliari, Italy.

The Other.

The baby cloud flies
not thinking next to the group
has an other rain.

© Tony Caredda.

OBSERVATION OF THE SKY

There is a face in the left hand
Looking up to the heavens and,
the eyes are half closed!
A gentle expression that is moving and white
grey and black like a giant cloud it drifts with the current of the
wind.
And says nothing like a silent prayer.
Now it has become a dogs head on the shoulders of a man
And the moon looks perturbed that something so close yet so far,
can dominate the sky.
Leaving no trail behind or gesture to remember.

© Nick Houvras.

Tulsa, OK. USA / Halifax, Nova Scotia

O Cirrus

In the silence lifting on the breath of heaven
the temporal cirrus and tossing crown
the lowest of heaven’s aspirations
a leaving of royal weaving found

Yet, my heart is drawn upward, cirrus !
while gazing at the fabric torn
high above earth’s unneeded worries
gazing at the beauty worn

The earth in a temporal moment
as if needed be, this day
to cover our lowly aspirations
with a high, directed song
to the eternal blue unending
and accompanying wind, breathing along

The lowest of heaven and the highest of earth
the visible sign of a merry mirth
fortelling of green-giving rain
arising on tomorrow’s wind around
and the ‘just so’ easing of the pain
of the lowly men, here bound

O Cirrus, not loud, nor featureless to man
born to be inspiration’s friend
the flying hope of earth’s highest dreams*
and deepest yearnings become known
high, above, where there is no sound
Beautiful, Perfect, Quiet, Alone !

© Kent Turner.

in Bath, UK.

Cloudspotting

We sat on the beach in a row of deckchairs,
tried to talk the clouds out of the sky
and into our notebooks.

We said they were the work of an idle god
who rag-rolled the sky between pipes.
Dirty white lint on hot blue sheets, just ironed.

The stuffing loved out of soft toys.
Whipped cream remnants on an unlicked bowl,
someone said, and it was time to eat.

As the sun fell we strolled back under a skyfull
of what you might call altocumulus undulatus.
We saw Shinto gravel gardens, raked by drunken monks.

© Simon Reynolds

Its just white…

Is that all I can see up there?

Are clouds nothing but white in the air?

As I look and I see,
I smile with glee,

For a small bird has decided to target me…….

in West Bloomfield, MI, US.

Your Face

I saw your face in the clouds one day;
wise, thoughtful and smiling!

I saw you face from far away crossed by a jet’s vapor trail
so what can one say?

An angel, a blessing, a curse or despair?
I know full well that no one will remember or care.

I saw your face in the clouds that vanished into the air,
without a word to say!

© Nick Houvras

in North Carolina, US.

Winter’s Quiet Visitors

Snowflakes
are little bits of clouds
that come down to visit us
one by one.

© Mary Beth Steinhoff

in Tulsa, OK. USA / Halifax, Nova Scotia.

O Cirrus !

In the silence lifting on the breath of heaven
the temporal cirrus and tossing crown
the lowest of heaven’s aspirations
a leaving of royal weaving found

Yet, my heart is drawn upward, cirrus !
while gazing at the fabric torn
high above earth’s unneeded worries
gazing at the beauty worn

The earth in a temporal moment
as if needed be, this day
to cover our lowly aspirations
with a high, directed song
to the eternal blue unending
and accompanying wind, breathing along

The lowest of heaven and the highest of earth
the visible sign of a merry mirth
fortelling of green-giving rain
arising on tomorrow’s wind around
and the ‘just so’ easing of the pain
of the lowly men, here bound

O Cirrus, not loud, nor featureless to man
born to be inspiration’s friend
the flying hope of earth’s highest dreams
and deepest yearnings become known
high, above, where there is no sound
Beautiful, Perfect, Quiet, Alone !

© Kent Turner

TREES?? CLOUDS!!

ONCE UPON A TIME SOMEONE WROTE THAT HE WOULD NEVER SEE A POEM AS LOVELY AS A
TREE. A TREE??
AS FOR ME?? HE DIDN’T LOOK UP HIGH ENOUGH, YOU SEE.
I WILL TAKE A BIG MAJESTIC CUMULUS CLOUD!! YESIREE. IN FLORIDA, JUST GET A
LOUNGE CHAIR- TOO MANY RED ANTS- A GLASS OF ICED TEA, AND RELAX WHILE
WATCHING AN EVER- CHANGING SUPER SHOW FOR FREE!! A CLEAR BLUE SKY? BORING!
AS FOR ME?? LOOK UP. IS THAT A BUNNY? AN ELEPHANT? WAIT A FEW MINUTES- MAYBE
3. THE SHOW CHANGES AGAIN- YOU’LL SEE. LOOK UP- WAY UP. ARE THEY CONTRAILS?
WOW, MUST BE WINDY UP THERE. LOOK HOW THEY ARE CHANGING SHAPE. A TREE?? IS
THAT AN ANVIL WAY UP THERE? ARE THOSE CUMULUS CLOUDS GETTING DARKER? OH ME.
WHAT IS THAT RUMBLING? LIGHTNING! OH GEE. ARE THOSE CLOUDS LINING UP? OH NO-
HURRICANE WARNINGS, POOR ME. DAY 3- WE’RE CLEAR AGAIN- HAPPY!!! OH MY
GOODNESS, WHAT DO I SEE: THE ULTIMATE CLOUD SHOW- A RAINBOW!!! YIPPIE!!

© James Dorow

in Wilmington, Delaware, US.

Kaleidoscope Skies

Billowing clouds go drifting by,
Changing patterns high in the sky;
Languidly sailing an upside-down sea,
Kaleidoscope sky entertainment is free.

On a casual day imagination can run,
Seeing tall crimson ships in a low setting sun;
Pirates dancing on marshmallow rails,
Skull and crossbones tucked in among shadowy sails.

Memories surface of a child long ago,
Laying in meadows and watching the show,
Unfolding like magic on a hot summer’s day,
On atmosphere’s stage in a world far away.

With carefree abandon she swallowed the time,
For sightings of wizards or some other rhyme;
Allowing the creatures to dance in the air,
As she, in her mind, often joined them up there.

How sad life’s too hectic to take just a minute,
To look at a cloud and find something in it;
To see once again, with innocent’s eyes,
The beckoning call of kaleidoscope skies.

© Geraldine M Stephey

The God Box

Clouds,
in a thousand shades of gray and blue,
purple and cream and palest peach,
some rolled long like bats of wool,
others thrusting like tufts of fur plucked upwards,
some clumped like great fistfuls of cottonballs,
others feathered into mare‚s-tails combed thin by the wind,
some spun into smooth sheets of satin,
others still in little rills like waves coming in,
or scalloped like seashells and fishes‚ scales,
all seen in a single sky,
as if God had gotten to the bottom of Her craft-box
and decided to use up all the loose ends at once.

Colors of the Heart

There‚s a kind of hope that lifts your heart
On wings that cannot fray
Like the color of a morning sky
That‚s turning toward the day
There‚s a kind of freedom in the mind
Through which all can be done
Like the color of an eggshell sky
Around a summer sun
There‚s a kind of grief that holds you close
And makes friends with the pain
Like the color of a cloudy sky
That‚s dreaming of the rain
There‚s a kind of dark excitement with
A savage ancient song
Like the color of an autumn sky
Whose winds blow cold and strong
There‚s a kind of vision in the soul
That sees from far to soon
Like the color of a clear night sky
That holds a waning moon
There‚s a kind of fury in the blood
That beats the battle drums
Like the color of a stormy sky
Before the blizzard comes
There‚s a kind of easy peace that takes
You down in sweet repose
Like the color of an evening sky
That‚s shedding all her clothes
There‚s a kind of love that lights your way
Although its time is past
Like the color of a predawn sky
That breaks night‚s hold at last

© Elizabeth Barrette

in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The Rain

Nimbostratus in the air,
Never lovely, never fair.
It always gets most people down,
Makes them grumble, makes them frown.

But that is not always the case,
For when that cloud rains on MY face,
I close my eyes and give a smile,
Getting wetter all the while.

I open my arms wide and sing,
Not a care for anything.
As the rain drops onto me,
Not everyone can see,

The true meaning of the rain.
It makes you forget all your pain.
I wouldn’t want to be in a house,
Right now, quiet as a mouse.

Nimbostratus in the air,
Never lovely, never fair.
It always gets most people down,
Makes them grumble, makes them frown.

© Christopher Horner

in Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK.

Realm of the Clouds

You Earth-bound humans, raise your eyes
And see what moves above; around;
When glorious cloud-patterns fill the skies
Why must you gaze on tainted ground?

Intense, unfathomed, glowing blue
Is backdrop to this shifting show.
The clouds in three dimensions move
To fascinate us here below.

And when the blue has left the day
And yielded place to midnight’s black,
How can we see the stars and say
That all has gone to ruin and wrack?

Whatever man has done below
To spoil the pristing purity,
He has not yet dimmed heaven’s bright glow
Or circumscribed infinity.

© Carol Burton

who are 9 years old, and spent each day of a week on a cloud watch, as part of a writing project.

Cloud Watching by Year 4

On Monday the clouds were
Pasted onto the sky
Grey like an elephant’s skin.
A smooth blanket completely covering the sky
Hardly moving, staying steady
Frozen by the Ice Queen’s spell.

On Tuesday the clouds looked like squirty cream on a pale calm sea,
Like cotton wool ripped apart
Like there’d been an earthquake,
Like ice floes on a cold sea.
Sunshine made a lightning through the cracks
Like glitter shining through paper,
Like mini stars in a puff of white smoke.

On Wednesday the clouds were see through like tracing paper,
Spread apart, standing out, making feathered shapes.
The clouds looked like surf breaking on the blues sea,
Sky like a clean swimming pool with frothy bubbles,
Sun, strong and bright making us squint.

On Thursday the clouds were like a bowl of Neapolitan ice cream,
Layered in shades of misty grey.
In the distance a cloud floats like a grey, watery melon.
Sky like a tissue,
Blues escaping from the grey, misty edge.

The end of the week was Friday.
Clouds like distant mountains
Quickly disappeared,
Breaking free behind the houses
Leaving the sky empty like a warm Caribbean sea.

Maleny, Australia.

Clouds

Altocumulus lenticularis with cirrocumulus stratiformis
And cumulonimbus undulatus with nimbostratus radiatus,
And perhaps altostratus duplicatus or cirrocastellanus nebulosus,
Make my translucidus praecipitatio tremble with congestus mediocris.
And if a pileus pannus arcus should calvus with a fractus virga
My vertebratus would duplicatus and my mamma floccus could cirrostratus.
But when a castellanus pannus can incus with a lacunosis,
then stratocumulus perlucidus will spissasus all over arcus velum.
So I think I’ll stay at home today.

© Ian Pollock

Wilmington, Delaware, US.

Kaleidoscope Skies

Billowing clouds go drifting by,
Changing patterns high in the sky;
Languidly sailing an upside-down sea,
Kaleidoscope sky entertainment is free.

On a casual day imagination can run,
Seeing tall crimson ships in a low setting sun;
Pirates dancing on marshmallow rails,
Skull and crossbones tucked in among shadowy sails.

Memories surface of a child long ago,
Laying in meadows and watching the show,
Unfolding like magic on a hot summer’s day,
On atmosphere’s stage in a world far away.

With carefree abandon she swallowed the time,
For sightings of wizards or some other rhyme;
Allowing the creatures to dance in the air,
As she, in her mind, often joined them up there.

How sad life’s too hectic to take just a minute,
To look at a cloud and find something in it;
To see once again, with innocent’s eyes,
The beckoning call of kaleidoscope skies.

© Geraldine M Stephey

Its just white…

Is that all I can see up there?

Are clouds nothing but white in the air?

As I look and I see,
I smile with glee,

For a small bird has decided to target me…

© Sam Stilton

Halifax, UK (‘Home of good old Yorkshire clouds’).

A short poem about clouds

I wandered lonely as a man
Through barren streets and towns
When all at once I saw a cloud
A smile to raise my frowns.
The furrowed brow, the sullen eyes
Sparkled and came alive
When all at once that cloud appeared
Blessed by the divine.

© Darren Harper (Member 5462)

Dallas, Texas, US.

At the sculpture

at the sculpture on a sunday afternoon,
in the dream
of terrell’s square screen,
tending (to feel)
blue

Quantum Cloud looks like a load of blown sticks,
stuck to some bloke
on a hill,
near stoke

like the slag at heron cross,
or near the pub*
in penkhull.

© Duncan Edwards
(11-12-06)

*The Jolly Potters pub.

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, US.

Waft

A stately puff chattered (as I sat rooted to the shoreline)
until I pulled it down out of the sky into the empty chair
next to mine.
And was surprised at the weight,
how it gathered substance – like a slow-boil cauldron,
in a marvelous struggle of fluid tugs and re-adjustments
as it gathered bulk in the chair.

We watched our kind run up the beach
darkened patch of wave or blistered engine,
and wondered aloud about our kind,
life packed inside skin and not-held vanilla gauze.
We talked of travel and shadows,
of pies and warm currents.

At conversations end – our bubble’s tension over,
we traded parting gifts.
I took in a lavish breath
and felt the cloud cross into blood,
then gave my blood-breath in return
to carry and exchange again
as song or spark.

© Regina Coll

Tring, Hertfordshire, UK.

Clouds for All Seasons

There they float far above our head up in the summer’s sky,
These marshmallow puffs glide effortlessly and seem easy on the eye.

As the seasons roll on and days become shorter,
The chill fills the air and darkness draws longer.

As natures dramatic shift of warm into cold does occur,
No longer shall these clouds be fluff like balls of fur.

Instead the frighteningly ominous sight of darker shapes unfold,
The warmth of the air is dampened by the bitterness of cold.

Roars of thunder and cracks of lightening precede the cascading rain,
Its as if the sky is crying and the sounds are screams of pain.

Lets not forget the times when these grey monsters fill above like an endless blanket sheet,
The air is still, frost bites the grass and nibbles at your feet.

The white flakes descend and flitter past your hat covered head,
Its now time to find your loved one and cosy up in bed.

The many shapes and forms these clouds they do so make,
My love for them is undeniable and most definitely not fake.

So look and admire nature’s marvels that reside up in our atmosphere,
That which stirs the senses of joy and wonder and on the odd occasion fear.

© Sam Long

Vevey, Switzerland.

Mont Pélerin poems above Vevey

Low hanging the clouds
No sky, just grey
Dismal is this another day
……………………..shrouds

Funeral flowers
have withered away
…………………..shortlived

No sun, no sound.
A bell chimes
As in gone-by times…….

…

Steam engine of bygone days
Puffs its clouds across the lake
Disappearing, reappearing.
Reappearing, disappearing.
Mountainous outlines of another age.
Horn blasts out of the fog
Boat slides by on the ripples of the lake.

…

Distant drone of motor cars
Occasional bird call
Rain pattering. Muted
voices, doors opening, closing.
Rain pouring.

Lonely chair
sits looking at lonely view
Empty, cold and wet.
Strange Summer this.

…

Sahara heat baked July
Green fields burnt brown and dry
Farmers harvested in the corn
fearing unexpected thunderstorm

A diamond collier
this cobweb
wet with rain drop pearls
shimmering in the cold grey light

Torrent after torrent
through the darkness of the night
Wake up again to the same sad sight…

…

The summer of the many butterflies
All colours, all sorts
Fluttering here, fluttering there
Accompanying the bees, the wasps,
the hornets too
Who built a nest outside our loo
They buzzed and zoomed and droned
like the villagers who wailed and moaned
Too cold this winter and now too hot
Never satisfied with what they’ve got

…

Another day
Above Vevey
Still and grey –
Still grey.
Where the August blue sky?
The Alpine panorama?
Where the mirrored reflections
in the still water of the lake?
Where have they gone those golden rays
Of long warm Summer days?

…

Grey is not always grey.
Sometimes lacklustre yellow or bilious green.
Or acid blue or shady mauve.

Day is not always day.
Can be night. Or morning.
Hell or heaven.
Short or long or in-between.
Colourful and bright
like a rainbow between earth and sky.
Or shades of metal, icy, hard
sickly hues matching the mood.

© Heather Cameron-Fischer
(Hôtel du Parc, Mont Pèlerin
(Vevey), Suisse, August 2006)

Houston, Texas, US.

What I See

I love to look up toward the Heavens,
hoping to catch a glimpse of GODS Face,
watching the clouds as they pass by,
showing me tiny pieces of His— Glory.
You see, as I watch I am greeted by the most awesome sites,
clouds I believe are telling me a story
There are those that look like people, animals and objects,
but what I most Love is What I See when I really look up and meditate..
I see Eye’s, looking down on me, watching and guiding my every step, I see shapes that I can’t explain but somehow they bring me joy and peace.
This is when I get lost and close my eyes and relax.
I thank the Lord for his wonders and for allowing me to see them.
So the next time you are out and about, I hope you take time to see
Some of the most outstanding pictures you will ever lay your eyes on
and then and only then will you see What I See.

© Cynthia Miller Mims.

Ashford, Middlesex, UK.

How I became a Cloudspotter

I was pedalling my bicycle along a country lane,
Quite oblivious to the sky above my head,
When a shout went up, “That cloud, sir! That cloud, sir! Look up there!”
And I brought my cycle to a stop quite dead.
Alas, I had forgotten ancient lessons learned at school,
Newton’s laws about inertia ‘mongst the pile.
And continuing on my journey whilst my bicycle stood still,
I sailed through empty air with silly smile.
Descending to the tarmac in an exponential arc,
Like a diagram from some artillery book,
I landed with a bump upon the unforgiving turf,
But thought that while I’m here, I’ll take a look.
But oh, the giddy whirling that did greet my star-filled eyes,
Everything went round and round my aching head.
And whilst recalling visions from my dim and feckless youth,
I was placed upon an ambulance’s bed.
Upon discharge from hospital, I went back to the scene,
Of this mishap caused by someone’s hasty fuss,
And looking at the sky to see what all the noise was for,
I was greeted by a flock of Cumul-us.
‘Twas wondrous to behold this glorious vision of a cloud,
As it sailed across the heavenly expanse,
But looking up like this gave me a right pain in the neck,
So I lay amongst the beetles and the ants.
Alas, I had not reckoned on the man who gave the shout,
Returning to the scene as I had done.
He thought I was a speed bump as he drew up in his car,
A vehicle which must have weighed a ton.
So the ambulance was called for once again to pick me up,
And rush me to the local A&E,
Where, ‘pon my due arrival, they worked hard to stitch me up,
And repair my painful neck and injured knee.
They warned me of the perils of gazing up into the sky,
(Quite needlessly, I thought, but there we are).
And they sent me home with collar surgical upon my neck,
So my head was held in perpendicular.
At least that was the theory, but their plan had come unstuck,
For you see, they had not read the bulletin,
That was issued at the hospital on my obesity,
They had not reckoned on my double chin.
With my chins upon the collar surgical that I now wear,
My line of sight is now on upward track,
Ideal, I think, for spotting clouds without strain to the neck,
And since wearing it I never have looked back.
So perfectly inclined I am to view the cloudy scene,
And completely unable to see the ground,
Well, if I’d been a botanist I’d really be depressed,
But with spotting clouds my joy may now abound.

© Dr Wm R Cooper, Member 5000.

Anchorage, Alaska, US.

The Painter’s House

At first, the horizon began
sinking lower on the canvas,
far beyond the rule of thirds.
Then she did away with the horizon
and the canvas altogether.
Now all she paints is clouds:
cumulus gathering on the door handle –
cirrus streaking across bathroom counters –
stratocumulus upon the night stand –
altocirrus fringing the edges of the full-length oak mirror –
cumulonimbus, complete with the anvil shape
of the cirriform cap, waiting presciently in the front hall –
and in the narrow space of counter and wall
between stovetop and refrigerator,
altocumulus and cirrus at sunset.
Sometimes you can glimpse undulations
of middle clouds, sliding around a corner or
sidling up beside the couch,
and ice crystals of high clouds lie
like broken glass upon the coffee table.
But it’s the low clouds
that envelope you
as if they enter through the skin,
damping the breath,
revising vision.
By then it’s no surprise that
thunderheads converge over the bed
and the single pillow
which should promise fair weather
has swallowed the vaulting blue.

© Marybeth Holleman

Westminster, Maryland US.

Musings from an Unfettered Heart
Opus Thirteen

On the Sex of Clouds

The clouds glowered,
All gunmetal gray and threatening.

They lowered their booms
All might and fright.

Beyond the clouds’ darkness lay
A deep and endless azure sky — beckoning
The world to its sunshine and warmth.

The clouds spat out rain in protest
Angry drops ratatatting on rooftops

Even clouds must posture, it seems
Surely, these were boy clouds.

© Muphen R.Whitney
(October, 2000)

Nevada, US.

Untitled

reflected puffy dabs,
floating on metal
windscreen
and her sunglasses

an old photograph,
blue desert sky
rented silver cadillac
unrented happy girl

© Duncan Edwards
(July 1992, Nevada)

New York City, US.

Ever stood for a moment

Ever stood for a moment
looking up at the clouds
noticing their shapes
colors, movement
configurations
constantly shifting
relative locations
in space?
Ever stood for two moments
and wondered what it might
feel like to lie down
on some of those soft
cloud beds up there
taking time off from work
without having to notify
anyone, without having to care?
Ever stood for three moments
exhilirated
watching storm clouds
scatter in a hurricane wind
rooting for the weak one day
for the strong, the next:
which side are you on?
does it make a difference?
does it?
Ever stood for four moments
feeling dizzy
when perceptions decieve
and you start swaying
with skyscrapers
dancing to the music
of an invisible breeze
while the clouds seem to
stand still?
Ever stood for longer
much longer, staring
till clouds disappear
not the same ones, mind you,
but some other clouds
some other place: ever
stop contemplating
and just savored
escape?

© Sheila Desmond

Maidstone, UK.

Drifting Vapours

Do clouds sleep as they stroll the skies?
While their haunting beauty is outlined by full moon
Yet with morning dew still on the ground
They awaken without a yawn, stretch or sound
With life not always knowing that they are there
They look down with a devious stare
A suspicion is aroused that when they huddle together
That they are plotting
For only they can decide the weather
Passive white turns to undecided grey
Which seems an omen for the rest of the day
Afternoon departs as blackness overlaps
With an open arm to the wind
Storm cloud also invites lightning in
Smothered light fades shadows
With darkness drawing nigh to weep
As storm clouds explode
Rain falls heavily toward those that sleep.

© Andrew Barrett

Dublin, Ireland.

Cloud

It was the only one, just there
In the clear blue sky, lying low
Close to the tree tops. Sheep like,
Its black face hidden under curly horns.
Stretching, changing, growing bigger,
Dragon like, spitting fire
Causing it to split in two, becoming its
Original self, facing the dragon.
Only this time it is more like a lamb
Clearer, brighter, peaceful
Just being there. The dragon disappears.
The lamb remains for a while and it too
Melts into little pieces and is gone.
Leaving a whisper of white
In the horizon.

© Marian Neary Burke.