Sometimes thin, like a cloud,
Scattered and foggy, it drifts,
Softly down or too high,
Silent mist turns to art,
Shadows grow dark and heavy,
Sunlight makes it bright and moving,
Steady shield, just a cloud like me.
They don’t just hang in the sky;
They watch and see,
Understanding that sometimes our lives can be a turbulent sea.
They bear our weights and pains.
They emerge from the cloak of night at dawn,
Happy clouds embraced by the morn.
They race to find their place in the expanse,
Belonging to both the flight and the flightless,
A place where dreams and visions can soar.
They are the artistry of the Unseen,
Woven and spun by benevolent hands.
They are wrung to pour upon hostile sands,
The lands we journey through until the soul transcends to the beyond.
The clouds spill a thousand secrets,
Revealing the made and the caged.
They see the darkness that hides yet walks in daylight,
Seeming to exist in oblivion as they watch during twilight.
August 6, 2026.
DRIFTING
Adrift without an anchor
Leaking like a faucet
Couldn’t sing even in church
But still I held the hymnal
And stood anyway
In a place without you
After you left
I couldn’t sleep easily
But my cat helped
Because you were gone
I unexpectedly cried at times
I truly required you,
Somebody to keep hold of
In a blurry reality
In a vessel without
Oars and engines
Down a river
Drifting further each day
Please Return
Even if it’s as someone else
I loved you so much
I should’ve told you more often
My bait is cast
But no fish are biting
And I’m drifting.
To drift amongst the clouds above,
To meet the travelers passing by in love,
Speaking of choices, paths to pursue,
And all the wonders waiting to be true.
Rushing back to earth they'll fly,
Many friends will go rushing by,
Leaving their mark so profound,
Hailstones come crashing all around.
Drifting down, so slowly goes,
Calmly as the current flows,
To rest upon a child’s upturned nose,
So light it slips, then softly goes.
Renewing rivers rushing through,
Dipping into oceans oh so blue,
Creating music upon arid land,
Flooding waters taking command.
All rushing turning the day to night,
Thunder calling all to join the fight,
Lightning piercing right down to the ground,
Storms gather with so much sound.
I drifted on, imagining the fall—
A single raindrop, dreaming through it all.
timeworn photographs
shadows thinning into grain
sepia drifting
petals drift in air,
your distant eyes unaware,
spring love fades somewhere.
Drifting, like islands
We navigate currents,
That cannot affect us.
But they do.
What we are,
Is, not so much where we are,
As what passes by us.
My mind is at play
Thoughts drifting away
I am neither here nor there
I am elsewhere
I am thinking of distant lands
Beautiful oceans & golden sands
Martini’s & cigarettes
Sunsets & no regrets
My heart is filled with happiness
Sunlight instead of darkness
All my problems have gone
This is where I belong
Music fills the air
I am without a care
Here I am free
Free to be me
Before nodding off in bed and on the cusp
of wide awake and fast asleep
when I can't keep my eyes open
while drifting down into darkness deep
the oddest thoughts cross my mind
without so much as a single warning
but even stranger still of it's own free will
it recalls them all come the morning
where they originate I can't say
as fleeting flybys quite romancy
they're not dreams or so it seems
but nightly random flights of fancy
My head is blue and green,
But only underneath,
Outside I’m like a rainbow,
Full of hope, bliss, and peace,
But even they are see-through,
Don’t look too hard.
I can feel them slowly fading,
Further and further away,
Should I try to stop them?
Or should I let them keep on going, going, going?
Trailing far behind them,
Without me, they have more fun,
I’m left to just watch
And feel like a boulder in the way
Of their passage to freedom.
You never compliment me
Or ask me how I’m doing,
But what would be the point if you did,
I’d only lie and say “I’m fine”
pink carnations ~ ~ cloud drifting
visage in the redolence of autumn
unpretentious goosebumps
countenance of this old lady, pretty cool
calculating glory in seemingly little things
sampling of gifts ~~ ultra mysterious
everlasting gobstoppers, multi-layered*
showstoppers, glory after glory
ever growing, ever glowing S U N R E S T
the Artist never stops creating bliss and joy
ultrasensory H A P P I N E S S
carnations that remind me of my mother
God winks in this parking space
before the arctic air ~ fresh air scented
gifting reminds me of my God
my God, my God ~ His name
is written everywhere
cloud drifting ~ my mind afloat
my inner smile with reticent grief
zephyr-peace of gladness
opalescent paradise
A breath of fresh air
a memory
Summer rings
inside my heart
like a bell
from long ago;
Pine needles
in your hair
scent of tobacco
on your shirt
Skin to skin
the heat
love,
drifting away, like
smoke !
White cotton clouds,
Drifting, softly by,
Sailing above the trees,
Way up in the sky.
The sun slowly fades away,
As the day changes, from morning till night,
The clouds start to disappear,
Only briefly, they stay.
Clouds are moments of magic,
And dreams they send our way!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
green reeds softly sway
sunlight paints the willow trees
cares drift, fall away
Written: September 18, 2025, for Brian Strand Contest
************
velvet waters hum,
moonlight stitched in drifting threads—
old songs rise again
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