Tuesday, 8 September 2009

Cloudy aside



Last week I watched a TV programme (that I'd recorded ages ago) called 'Cloudspotting'. It featured an interesting organisation (that probably started as a joke but is now huge) called The Cloud Appreciation Society. They have a website with a poetry page and today's poem is my one from TFE's five minute poem project from last week. Just so you know.

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24 comments:

Rachel Fox said...

And the photo? One of ours from the beach just down the road here. I took it about a month ago.
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Titus said...

How cool is that! I watched the programme when it first aired - bonkers! My favourite was the little girl who just saw elephants.

Rachel Fenton said...

I have the book 'Cloud Spotter's Guide' - it's great, and my friend bought me the pocket book with tick boxes to mark off which ones I've seen! I love clouds...'what is this world if...'HOM (husband of mine) is something of a cloud expert...it's helpful to know about clouds for paragliding purposes, apparently. I'll stick to admiring them from the ground though!

Ivor Gurney wrote some fab cloud poems - was all they could see from the trenches...

Rachel Fox said...

Yes, I must dig out some more cloud poems and send them off. I can see me getting their cloud calendars for various folk for xmas this year.

That bit on the programme about the woman paraglider getting caught in the cloud and nearly killed (cloud suck they call it - read it here)! EEK and double EEK.

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Totalfeckineejit said...

Love clouds, my head is up in them till the stars come out.The skies have it! Great to see your cloudy poem getting another airing. Cool!

Rachel Fox said...

Well, as with yesterday's, I probably wouldn't have sat down to write it without you!
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McGuire said...

Clouds, you can't beat them. In summer so pleasant and breezy, optimistic cathedrals, sky duvets, slow hover craft, racing unicorns, chambers of sky.

Bukowski had an obsure one, can't quite remember it, something like: 'the clouds rush toward me like nurse maids with bed pans.'

I do get the cloud love thing. But really it's just gas and vapour and nothing much at all. It is the 'illusion' of a nice cloud that is so beautiful.

*Didn't make it to Edinburgh, hence i never got in touch, but hopefully catch you some other time. Forest Cafe readings down the line perhaps? Work to be done.

Rachel Fox said...

Just gas and vapour? Without them we're nothing!

No plans for more Edinburgh just now. Putting on a thing here in Montrose in October. See here.

Jim Murdoch said...

I had The Observer's Book of Clouds as a kid. I worked that into Living with the Truth if memory serves me right.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Fantastic - well done.

Rachel Fox said...

Thanks Weaver. It's good to be read wherever. Have you got a cloud poem to send them?
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hope said...

Cloud gazing...that's one of the small joys of childhood that the kids I work with had no idea about. Well, until I innocently said to a little one, "I see an alligator. What do you see?" Next thing we knew, all the kids are joining in. One said it was silly but another one said, "You're just too lazy to figure anything out." :)

Thank you for such a relaxing picture. After the day I've had....let's just say an almost asthma attack treated by Dr. Lecher [I swear!] has the makings for a weird post itself.

Colin Will said...

Lovely stuff. Clouds are one of the reasons I enjoy flying - it's great to look down on them too.

Crafty Green Poet said...

I love clouds. They're the only thing I like about flying! I recently bought a book about the history of cloud classification ...

Rachel Fox said...

I love everything about flying. Except the planes.
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swiss said...

my favourite paragliding story of late was this one
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL029805720070202

ouchy!

Rachel Fox said...

What a story!
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deemikay said...

The Cloudspotter's book is a good one... I got it when it came out. One of my pre-teen daydreams involved cities of cloud people sailing their big cloud ships...

deemikay said...

Oh, and I just saw Rachel Fenton's mention of Ivor Gurney... very true!

Rachel Fox said...

Maybe I'll put the cloud book on my xmas list then.
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deemikay said...

Not a very science-y book, but full of nice little stories and facts.

Rachel Fox said...

Sounds perfect. I was OK at science in school but seem to have lost that bit of my brain (and I mean REALLY lost). I suspect it was never really there.
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SUSAN SONNEN said...

What a fun poem, Rachel!

Rachel Fox said...

Thanks Susan. It was a bit of a crazy thing - writing it in five minutes and then making it public! But lots of others took part and did the same so I guess there was safety in numbers or something.

I was working on the next 'Monday poem' project today. Come back on Monday - some of us will be doing this.

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