A Reading Of Clouds*
Someone says something about a storm.
So I say what better time
to head out for a walk…
my favorite walk.
Each step allows me to see the stones again,
allows me to feel a change
one I only know as a new season.
Each look up at a vocal sky
brings what I hear,
what I question to know a sound
I dare believe is a reading of clouds…
those ones I can’t name.
Those ones I see and have seen
many times when my neck needs a workout.
A reading of clouds,
each gust like a language meant for me,
why I’ve spent a lifetime
seeking what the sky is about
and what I will never be a part of…
left to stare and talk out loud to the wind
about whatever those clouds are named.
Each one, all of them way above
anything I might’ve been myself,
or the other curious men
I can say are also locked to
and led by unforgettable stories
often written about the land.
*written between March 12-18 during the worldwide outbreak of the Coronavirus.
………………….
Chad Norman, Truro, NS, Canada. His poems have appeared for the past 35 years in literary publications across Canada, as well as a number of other countries around the world. He hosts and organizes RiverWords: Poetry & Music Festival each year in Truro, NS., held at Riverfront Park, the 2nd Saturday of each July. In October 2016 he was invited by the Nordic Assn. for Canadian Studies to give talks on Canadian Poetry and read from his books at Borupgaard Gym in Copenhagen, and Risskov Gym in Aarhus, as well as other readings in both cities and Malmo, Sweden. Because of that tour Norman has started the manuscript, Counting Coins In Denmark And Sweden. His most recent books are Selected & New Poems, from Mosaic Press, and Waking Up On The Wrong Side of The Sky, from Grant Block Press, and a new book, Squall: Poems In The Voice Of Mary Shelley, is due out Spring 2020, from Guernica Editions. Recently, he completed the manuscript, The Black Rum Poems, and presently works on a new manuscript, A Small Matter of Inclusion. In October of 2017 he read at various Eastern Canada venues in Kingston, Ottawa, and Montreal. And in the Fall of 2018 Norman gave a speaking/reading tour of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, as a celebration of literacy and Canadian Poetry. He is currently a member of the Federation of NS Writers and The League Of Canadian Poets. His love of walks is endless.