Sky Panther

sky panther
glancing off the moon
protecting the gentle
clouds drifting into
peaceful sleep

© Michael Ruiz

The cloud photograph is part of a long-term project by Jeffrey Pflaum titled, “Scenes from The Big Cloud Picture Show.” The student poetry comes from two anthologies he compiled over the years from their best work: INNER CITIES (free-verse) and DANCING IN THE SPRING RAIN (haiku and short poetry).
He presented “The Big Cloud Picture Show” (rack of 144 color transparencies) to his class. After viewing a sample of the images, the kids (grades 5 – 6) brainstormed, or really, as Jeffrey calls it, “titled-stormed” potential titles for poems they would write afterward. When they finished describing the images on the screen and title-storming, students wrote poems in free-verse or haiku — their choice. This is the first time Jeffrey has combined the students’ cloud poetry with his cloud photographs — the combination of text with image works well we think.
This is from a series of these combinations and we will post more for you to enjoy shortly.