By Baek Gye-rim
The autumn sky is beautiful.
Even with just a few clouds
floating in it,
I keep looking up at the sky.
I wonder,
does that sky look at me, too,
and say
I'm beautiful?
Anticipating Autumn brings me joy
The rise of Fall for me came right on time
Bright crimson leaves my favorite by far
But then a hurricane forms in the gulf
I live nearby the Gulf of (what’s it now?)
Our courage tested many times before
We’ll bear the brunt and cross that bridge again
Is life not written on the passing clouds
Shapeshifting rumors on an errant breeze
Tailoring the moon’s mysterious cloak
The fire and ice of an unsettled liege
Is she not a master of words that deny
The meaning of heaven and earth and goodbye
Conjuring demons to lead us astray
An unending search for the why of the why
Wet sands erase the sun’s sepia smiles
Leaving us breadcrumbs of love and despair
The flicker of longing we no longer feel
An aching that asks were we really there
Clouds have no mem’ry save moonrise and tide
And life only moments in which they abide
Earth steals
the Moon's shine
curving line
sun-cast torn form
a divine misery.
Throw Heaven's
human scheme
hemmed within
the earthly show
fairer than the skies.
(Blackout of At a Lunar Eclipse by Thomas Hardy)
Cumulus clouds
clouds you learned to draw
the symbol of all clouds
like the snowflake symbolizes winter.
rounded, puffy, and a brilliant white bottoms are flat and dark.
develop on clear, sunny days
nickname
"fair weather" clouds.
appear in the late morning,
grow,
disappear toward evening.
How it feels, to touch the knowledge
That reveals the magic power
See me fluting in the foliage
Like Henry Rousseau’s Snake Charmer
Though no snake crawls up enticed
While I play El Condor Pasa
That’s for better, I surmised
And the wind blew stronger, gusting
Clouds of the pink and blue
Changed their forms with every second
Then I saw the face of you
Laughing : now you got me beckoned!
As I smiled back to reply
Blue turned grey and pink turned red
Withered leaves spun in the sky
Falling on your flower bed..
When we were together you and me,
Our love shone out for all to see.
I knew all of you from top to toe.
I could smell you, I could feel you all day and night and in every dream,
You were there in the breeze, there in the rustling leaves of the trees,
I could see you in the clouds and in the brightest twinkling star.
But in a flash you had gone!
Disappeared with someone new.
The world went black, I was lost, I felt under attack,
I never slept, I never ate,
I resigned myself to any fate.
You were still there, everywhere,
I could see you and smell you, every bit of you that I knew so well.
In dreams I would kiss you and hold you,
Then in the morning I would realize I was just being tortured by the taste of touch.
Sun now dips down low
Twilight starts to glow
Tangerine skyline
At distance align
Like a honeyed dream
Beside a soft stream.
When there’ll be no Facebook, darling
And no Google Photos too
Could we plant another garden
Under skies of acid blue?
They might regulate the clouds
Teach the sun how it should shine
And no rain would fall without
The permission of AI
But one thing they can’t rehash
Is the loving fun we spent
Saved by laughs, it’s in our ash
Scattered over sea and sand..
The morning bright sun,
has tangerine smiles.
The sky awakes as,
I eat tangerines.
The day is closing,
to tangerine clouds.
d r i f t i n g in a quiet morning,
the clouds gather light,
softening edges of the sky
with pale silver breath
that folds into itself~
slow and tender,
carrying dawn
across the treetops
in one bright wandering sigh
before they thin again
into open air and
depart
If I knew how to make the clouds dance,
I would teach them to waltz across vast skies.
They would never dissolve into nothingness—
And they would always inspire searching eyes.
If I knew how to make the clouds dance,
I would be a musician of bright notes and vivid colors.
I would take them by the hand like friends,
So they would never grieve as lonely drifters or lovers.
I would teach them how to be like the swans,
Moving gently with grace as they glide.
A composer floating endlessly in the lake of dreamers.
"Note: AI image generated to complement the themes of my original poem."
Let me lie down for a while
To watch the clouds formless wags
Their silver linings in the sky
Can’t be corroded by the rains
Intangible, ephemeral
That silver shines too bright
To last for longer, on the roll
Of the wild winds I might
Feel for a minute, maybe two
Or three, if I continue
To watch the sky in search of you
Although I live within you.
Mare's tales aloft, I'm feelin' soft
Feelin' as wispy as what's blowin' cross
They come and they go, like all of these states
This will blow over if I will just wait
Poet’s notes: this poem was written for this week’s poetry challenge: Write a poem with exactly seven lines.)
water rises in the clear bowl, a small cosmos gathering itself.
bubbles bloom like breath returning to a long-quiet body.
copper and blue tiles hold the warmth of forgotten mornings.
on the sill, bottles keep vigil — lotions, perfumes, small reliquaries of touch.
the faucet’s flow feels ancient, a quiet force older than ache.
the sky beyond the glass window moves in pale currents, clouds drifting close to the sill,
and I lean into the moment, letting the water’s rise settle something unnamed.
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