2005-01-24T03:32:00.000-08:00

Note: International Cloud Lovers Day
has been scheduled worldwide for April 7, 2006, and every April 7 thereafter. ....to pause for a moment or two during the day and gaze at some distant clouds and reflect on the power and majesty that clouds have upon our lives as human beings on Planet Earth....

I WISH I WAS A CLOUD

[This poem was written in 2002, when the author was driving an old motorscooter through rural hill country on a beautiful summer afternoon, with amazing cloud formations rising off the peaks of the Central Mountain Range. Thank you, Mother Nature, for the inspiration.]

an internet poem by Danny Bloom
[maybe a small picture book for adults someday]
[with photos of cloud formations from around the world!]
http://gmail.google.com/gmail?view=att&disp=imgs&th=103a2301d2950e88

Like human fingerprints
No two clouds are alike

They soar in the sky
like majestic towers
turkey towers the weatherman calls them

beautiful,
splendiferous,
incredible,
spacious,
ever-mutating,
crying out for attention,
hungry,
passionate,
full of pizazz and verve.

Yes, summer clouds are a delight to the eye
white mushrooms of smoke
set against a blue, blue sky...

Are you a summer cloud?
Do you have summer wings?
Summer flings?

Of all the clouds in the world
(and there are millions of them)
Which cloud pattern are you?

Proud?
Content?
Happy?
Sleepy?
Ready to do battle?
Humongous?
Indecipherable?
Lovelorn?

...

Whatever you do, and whoever you are
remember this:

There is only one you,
and one universe,
of which you are an integral part

and while there are many summer skies
and many summer clouds
the cloud you choose to be
will transport you
to the realization of your dreams

Be the best you can be,
and live up to all your accolades.
Smile when the photographer says "Cheese!"
and give it your best shot.
Life, that is.

Summer clouds,
summer sky,
Bye and bye....
Hello! Goodbye!

(c) 2005 Danny Bloom International

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... if you enjoyed this poem, you will surely want to join the Cloud Appreciation Society based in the UK...

http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org

The Cloud Appreciation Society Wants You!

http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/1about/manifesto.html

The Cloud Appreciation Society is an idea who time has come, and a gentleman in Britain named Gavin Pretor-Pinney has created an international website for people who love clouds. Members, and this blogger is now one too, believe that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

"We pledge to fight 'blue-sky thinking' wheresoever we find it," the membership credo states. "Life would be dull if we had to look up at a monotonous blue sky every day. Clouds are Nature's poetry -- sometimes spoken in a whisper, sometimes roared with all her might. We acknowledge that clouds are the most egalitarian of Nature's displays since everyone has an equally fantastic view of them."

While clouds are wonderful to look at, to photograph and to paint,sometimes clouds are overlooked in the rush of daily life. So TheCloud Appreciation Society, as envisioned by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, willseek "to remind people around the world, in every country, that theclouds are expressions of the Earth's atmosphere's moods that can beread like those of a personss countenance."

"We're in danger of becoming meteorologically autistic -- of becomingignorant of the meanings of these expressions," says Pretor-Pinney.

The international cloud club's credo also states: "We believe thatclouds are for dreamers, and their contemplation benefits the soul.And so we say to all who'll listen:Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your headin the clouds!"

There is also an interesting link between elephants and clouds in some Asiancultures: early Sanskrit creation myths explain that elephants werecreated at the beginning of time, which were white, able to fly andchange their shape at will and had the power to bring rain (makingthem sound suspiciously like clouds). Modern-day elephants are stillconsidered to be spiritually-related to clouds, and they areworshipped in some Asian countries, such as Thailand and Cambodia, tohelp bring rain and fertility to crops, cattle and man, according to Pretor-Pinney.

The society will recognize clouds of the month as part of its globaloutreach. For example, in January, the ''Clouds of the Month" was a lovely pair of contrails -- the clouds that form in the wake of highaltitude jets. Each month, a different kind of cloud formation will bespotlighted, with color photos on the website. And Pretor-Pinney isalso writing a book about clouds, yes, and it will be published soonin Britain and the USA as well. Translations into Chinese and Japanesefor markets in Asia are being planned, too, according to the author.

"What a fantastic bunch of cloud photographers we now have among the members of The Cloud Appreciation Society," Pretor-Pinney said in a recent email. "Our request for photos of clouds has led to a wealth ofbrilliant images on the cloud gallery page of our website. Inaddition, I hope that this part of the site will keep growing. If you have any favorite photos to share with other members around the world,from Taiwan or Japan or the USA or England, then do please keepsending them in to gavin@cloudappreciationsociety.org."

"At The Cloud Appreciation Society we love clouds, we're not ashamedto say it and we've had enough of people moaning about them," addsPretor-Pinney. Please read our online manifesto and see how we arefighting the banality of 'blue-sky thinking.' If you agree with whatwe stand for, then join the society for free and receive your very ownofficial membership certificate and badge."

So just how did Gavin Pretor-Pinney get into this cloud stuff?

"Well," he says, "I remember seeing the sunbreaking out from behind a large cumulus cloud in England when I was being driven toschool by my mother, when I was aged four and a half. I think it had quite an effect onme. In fact, I told my mother it looked like 'silent thunder'".

"As an adult, now as a writer and researcher, I like the way that clouds are natural phenomena that can be understood byeveryone on a scientific level, and yet they are very unscientific at the same time in theirfeel -- ephemeral, evocative, uncategorizable," he said. "So I am very interested in the idea of producinga book that will be a perfect blend of the scientific and artistic perspectives,and it just so happens that clouds are a perfect subject matter."

The book Pretor-Pinney is working on will be titled "The Cloudspotter's Guide" and, though it willbe in black and white, it will have a lot of fascinating images and diagrams, he said. It is due tobe released in the UK next year, with editions currently planned for Britain, the US and France. Later editions, in translation for Japan or Taiwan, hopefully will appear later, the author said, adding that since clouds are an international phenomenon, the book could eventually reach over 30 countries in translation.
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NOTES ON:

International Cloud Lovers Day:

I decided to start International Cloud Lovers Day as a media awareness event worldwide, and it has been scheduled worldwide for ...drum roll.. April 7, 2006 [nospecial reason why that date, except that 4-7 adds up to 11, and 7/11are lucky numbers in casinos, so why not?] but alternative dates arealso being set up, including any day you wish ....yes, any day youwish.

International Cloud Lovers Day is not pegged to any one country or anyone day in any one month, but exists merely and hopefully to raisepublic awareness of the way clouds inspire us, move us, touch us,motivate us, push us, make us feel human, in our daily lives.

International Cloud Lovers Day will let us pause for a moment or two
wherever you are, and gaze at some distant clouds and reflect on thepower and majesty that clouds have upon our lives as human beings onhere on Planet Earth....Feel free, of course, to use this special day in your own work orlife, promoting awareness or wonder of clouds wherever you live.

I Wish I Was A Cloud