I've Looked at Clouds...

I spend a lot of time looking at the sky.  I guess you could say I'm a sky watcher- or perhaps more accurately, a cloud watcher.  No, I don't mean the game where you try to find shapes in the clouds.   I like the clouds just for themselves.  My kids used to yell at me for watching the clouds while I was driving, which, I admit, is not a very good idea.  But I just can't help it; it's like a whole other world up there, one that changes constantly. The quality of light, the movement, the colors...it fascinates me.  It's difficult to put into words, and I'm more of a "picture is worth a thousand words" kind of girl, anyway.  So, here are my pictures, along with some words I did not write.

Low-Anchored Cloud

Low-anchored cloud,
Newfoundland air,
Fountain-head and source of rivers,
Dew-cloth, dream-drapery,
And napkin spread by fays;
Drifting meadow of the air,
Where bloom the daisied banks and violets,
And in whose fenny labyrinth
The bittern booms and heron wades;
Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers,
Bear only perfumes and the scent
Of healing herbs to just men's fields!

Henry David Thoreau 

[exerpt from] THE CLOUD   By Percy Shelly:

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their Mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under;
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

 [exerpt from] THE CLOUD   By Percy Shelly:

I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky:
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain, when with never a stain
The pavilion of heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, --
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise, and unbuild it again. 

Wow, I didn't realize I had so many photos of clouds until i started getting them together to put on here!   Did you know that there's actually a Cloud Appreciation Society?  Hmmmm...maybe I should join!