Canadian geese
the cumulus cloud cutouts...
honk for me to see
How much does the average cumulus cloud weigh?
I watch one glide across the sky at sloth speed
It is fluffy, white and porous with a shine of light blue
Dainty and light, it weighs maybe six pounds I guess
The scientist visiting me laughs.
An average cumulus cloud weighs as much as one hundred elephants.
She is kidding, right?
I stare at the cloud, astounded.
As soon as this know-it-all leaves, I plan to look this up.
I must have been an Indian in another life
for I see the Great Father
in the clouds
I hear him in the trees, loving the way
he makes the cottonwood leaves twinkle
and flutter in silver and gray prettiness
I give thanks to him staring into a cumulus cloud
fluffy as a cotton ball, unmoving and serious
it makes me laugh
if my feet worked like they used to, I would twirl
around and around staring into the sky
loving the feel of nature as it silently watches
there is so much to appreciate and adore in the world
yellow daffodils, aromatic lilacs, fuzzy mosses,
big juicy red tomatoes
I spin a tiny bit
for I cannot
not spin….
Clownish yaw engines
Spin us about
The blue sphere we inhabit
Its future in doubt
Our cumulus cloud shroud
Conceals the pain
Of tanks, missiles and pogroms
And unburied slain
I watch the world and the maddening crowd
As I float by on a cumulus cloud
High on my perch, all this sadness I see
I dream of the things, the things that should be
A bright pinnacle of all of our best
But all I glimpse is a growing unrest
A division where so few can relate
The destruction, degradation, and hate
An environment where prejudice grows
Where so many are perceived as your foes
A stormy climate of fear and distrust
The glory of war with a morbid lust
Day by day the continued pollution
Without a pause or any solution
One winding road with little distinction
On a collision course bound for extinction
There's still a chance to make changes today
A mutual trust would help pave the way
One unified world pulling together
With a single goal to make life better
What'll it take to make you open your eyes
While tearful I wait and watch from the skies
I'd shout this out loud if given a choice
But since I'm spirit, no one hears my voice
An ancient mariner on the sea, I am sailing for ages
on the rolling cobalt waves rising high and falling low.
In the darkest of nights when the tempest rages,
my boat pitches, and I toil to float, the journey is slow.
Up above my wasteland of life in the seamless sky,
the rainless clumps of cumulus cloud are hovering,
in my desert heart I feel your melting shadow fly,
make a sea in the profound depth of my yearning.
There I drown the dregs of my dispersed despair,
feel the fervent waves of joy roll for which I pine.
Your charming smile the dancing waves gleefully share,
my senses shimmer in the cadence of silver sunshine.
My dream sky suffuses your sparkling azure serenity,
sunburst colors paint panorama of passion in my dawn,
hues of my emotion spread on the visage of your beauty,
on the canvas of my ecstasy I see it mesmerizingly drawn.
The tempest of torment can’t tarnish the luster of your grace,
the pole star of your lure guides me on the course I crave.
In the amorous night the bearing to your moonlit shore I trace,
and find the fervor to sail with your love on the crest of a wave.
I sat quietly staring out the porthole window
As we were passing over a village in the low hills
A cumulus cloud casting over its ominous shadow
Far below in the silence of the engine’s shrills,
I wondered where those tiny people were going
Beneath the wing nary a songbird nor butterfly
Alone streaking through the frigid air, the Boeing,
Not a face lifted from village below to the sky
Then it was gone, as quickly as I had imagined,
I rummaged through my satchel of ordinaries
Forgetting a whole community of unexamined
Miniatures, no concern for untended cemeteries,
I had long forgotten when the plane descended
My sweet reveries in solitude, my journey ended.
Written June 10, 2022
Submitted to "2022 Marathon Mile 1" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Mark Toney
In seamless sky up above the wasteland of my wan life,
clumps of cumulus cloud hovered rainless all the while.
In their smoldering shadow a desert spawned in my heart,
and at its fringe in the oasis of yearning you became a lake.
In its tranquil depth you drowned the dregs of my despair,
torrents of fervid joy flowed from you in my depression.
The beguiling breeze made ripples of smile on your face,
where in the moonshine I was reflected in sensory shimmer.
My cerulean sky dissolved in your sensuous azure serenity,
sunburst colors of my dawn painted the panorama of passion,
the hues of my dusk spread emotive spectrum on your visage,
where had the flight of ecstasy taken me, you didn’t know.
The desert wind could never desiccate your lacustrine beauty,
I would unfollow the transient trails of mirage to reach you.
In diaphanous night on arms of your moonlit shore I would lie,
and in your ambrosial essence I would submerge my soul.
June 28, 2020
Contest : Sensuality
Sponsor : Silent One
RAINBOW
Raindrops sparkling amidst mild drizzling
Azure sky showing sun to peep through cumulus cloud
Intermittent showers reflecting, refracting shimmering sun rays
Nascent fluorescent afterglow.
Bright sun spectrum pasting on sky album.
On firmament seven colored arches of rainbow to design.
Wonderful dispersion of sun rays through rain globules.
06/16/20
' Non-Human' Poetry Contest by Chantelle Anne Cooke
BLUE FAIRY
I fell in love as I chanced to glance the girl dressed in blue,
gazing at azure sky embracing aquamarine ocean.
In cyanic horizon.
I lost myself sinking deep deeper deepest in her sapphire eyes
Indigo twilight blending in teal mist spreading lavender shades.
Crowd of cluster of cumulus cloud turning turquoise on Sundown.
Clad in blue attire sweet maiden scattered blue dream
in calm placid ambient.
Periwinkle stars in polka dots started to twinkle on charcoal sky.
Blue fairy hastily walked away
I was left alone on solitary sea shore.
12/29/19
Second Place
'Strand No.690' Contest by Brian Strand
What if oranges grow in the desert
Or would that be more of a coincidence
What if cactus flower
We're just a desert
Humm!!! Good but with the thorns and thistles wouldn't it hurt
Well I guess I would never know
Because I stubbed my toe
Then I fell in a ditch
Then I got sick
Because of the cumulus cloud
Within it The Thunder Rolls loud
The lightning flashed
As the Thunder crashed
And as it struck the ground
The lightning round
I proceeded to frown
Why? because my nose bleed
And it is is as often as I have said
You can't get oranges from a cactus plants
And does it ever ever rain ...
in the desert
10/31/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr
I Love You
I love you as much as a digging dog loves finding its long buried T-bone.
I love you as much as I love carne asada tacos and beans on Saturday nights.
I love you as much as the blue sky loves a flowing white cumulus cloud.
I love you as much as a revving car engine loves its regular oil changes.
I love you as much as a marching ant loves my open gaping cookie jar.
I love you as much as a dead rotting corpse loves a green gated graveyard.
I love you as much as a crooked preacher loves collecting baskets full of money.
I love you as much as a common thief loves an unlocked door at midnight.
I love you as much as a cluss-filled toilet loves finally flushing it all down at dawn.
I love you as much as a mosquito loves the open bare skin on the back of my leg.
I love you as much as my stomach loves the flow of warm mashed potatoes in winter.
I love you as much as an open book loves human eyes peering upon its naked white pages.
I love you as much as a bed loves the springs in its mattress when the bouncing begins.
GIBBOUS MOON
An elusive scene had arisen.
Ghostly gibbous Moon to glisten.
Pulses of heart beats to listen
dancing rhythmic in delight.
Me, walking mad and mesmerized,
horrified and hypnotized,
bewildered and polarized
on frantic lunatic plight.
Cumulus cloud in platoon
floating passing maroon Moon.
trying to hide it later or soon.
At last Moon winked being polite.
05/11/18
First Place
'All Yours (Feb 12) Contest by Brian Strand
2022 Marathon Mille Poetry 24
Contest. by Mark Tony.
by Mark Toney.
cumulus cloud
bright white fades
to gray
Don't vex your ex
When love from grace falls
Cos Semtex
Strikes love walls
Once so mighty, so sprightly
Stood proud to defeat any cumulus cloud
Which off balance slightly
Couldn't speak or spell aloud
In defence of the right
Love from her heart demanded
In a grip so tight
In a loud voice commanded
From Ben and Betty
As they strove hard
Despite little cash in the kitty
Covered in lard
As love began to dwindle on the spindle
That fastened the love Ben and Betty felt
For each other which a swindle
Jealousy dared to melt
As Ben 's heart stolen
From him in escapades on a grenade
Fallen
From Hades began to degrade
The love that shone
Throughout a dark period
Blown and torn
In a sentiment synod
Ben told
Betty not to vex
To withhold
Opportunities machismo muscles never again to flex
Or else to him love vowed never to return
Whether Ben laughed or cried
Until Ben made up his mind to burn
Ubris is love to him Cupid supplied.
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