Nine Variations of a Cloud
1
Looking up, I renounce pity and the sadness of wind.
2
Only lust pulls and shapes more, diminishing your integrity.
3
It slips through whenever I try to grab it.
4
Every phrase is a window glowing at night, surrendered to its frame.
5
Water in another form is still water.
6
In whose ruins must you survive?
7
Another shape, another moment desperately spent.
8
And still you thrive in diminishment.
9
Bearing nothing, it conceals.
“Nine Variations of a Cloud” first appeared in Kindle Magazine in December 2015, and was also included in Gossamer: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry.
O at the Edges 
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“In whose ruin must you survive?” — *gasp* Love this.
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Thanks, Carrie. That’s often the unvoiced question.
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Synchronicitiy – I spent yesterday photographing clouds from the chair outside our camper (on vacation in NC) … essentially a meditation … they kept shifting and changing … as clouds do!
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I noticed some lovely clouds while driving back from San Antonio yesterday. But I was driving, and couldn’t devote much attention to them. 🙂
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Simply superb Robert! Clouds explored! Your thoughts on my ” lost in the crowd” thank you
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Thanks very much. Clouds are wondrous things to explore!
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There is such a fascinating tension here with the clouds sometimes being implied/incidental to the otherwise important features of the scene, sometimes comprising an “it” which acts, and sometimes addressed as a “you,” who endures.
Sometimes, poems that contain these kinds of inconsistencies feel confounding, and inscrutable — but in this case, what is elusive and/or concealed, is the point, which I find really compelling. The clouds have their own grammar, and there is nothing we can do to wrangle them into a semblance of order — rather we can willingly abide their mystery, or unbecomingly project our own sense of “diminishment” onto them. Hmm…
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Try as we might, we can’t quite grab onto them…
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I love the last line.
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Thanks very much.
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small post with a lot of wisdom
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We can learn much from clouds.
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Thanks for liking my post!! Digging your work as well!! Cheers!!
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Wonderful post. And thank you!
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As an incorrigible cloudhead, I applaud this poem with all my soul. I loved every phrase and the visions they opened up. Much to think about for days to come. Bravo.
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The world is full of cloudheads! So pleased you like the poem.
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Cloud watching is an art form, as is creating words about them 🙂
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There’s something quite intriguing about cloud watching!
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Love this. Thank you for sharing.
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Thanks, Keith. Much appreciated.
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I’ve just been on a blog break, and this is the first post I’ve come back to… it’s fair to say you’ve set the bar incredibly high!
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Welcome back, Al. And thank you!
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beautiful work!
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Thank you, Annika.
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Sweet! Wonder what the blackbird thinks of the cloud? 😀
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I’d bet he’s with the snowman, discussing the nothing that is.
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Beautiful words sutured together to make a masterpiece. I love the poem.
“water in another form is still water. “
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Thanks very much!
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This is so beautiful.
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Thank you!
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This is quite beautiful
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Thank you.
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