DRIFTING ON A CLOUD by Tammy T. Stone

This poem was inspired by a feeling of "in between-ness"...

It is one that I have tended to experience in many different guises, and have grappled with for much of my life. Being between: vocations, life stages, physical geographies and senses of "home ...". Dwelling within transitional realms can be disorienting, but also exciting and liberating, especially as it teaches is the joys of finding our way to the present moment. I think this is why the image of the cloud came to me - it might not be a place we want to inhabit forever, but it's certainly a perspective that has its enticing qualities! 

Photograph by Catherine L. Schweig

Drifting on A Cloud

by Tammy T. Stone

Drifting on a cloud,

The ground a distant sea

We find in our bottomless

Visions,

Buried wisdoms deep and long 

Always waiting to rise

We can’t dive in,

Being as we are,

Drifting on a cloud –

What else to do, then,

But turn our hearts

Away from sandy shores

And the promise of 

Trails of crackling leaves,

Thickets of trees,

And stay close  

And find clouds resting 

Nearby, a cosmic latitude

The width and breath 

Of our expansion,

And we are at 

The very beginning,

Carried on the seeds 

Of our own awakening

The cloud feels like

Snow that won’t fall

A pagoda in the sky

For kneeling and gazing out,

For celebrating celestial bodies

And astral events

Our house, our altar

Our elders and our children

Ground and roof alike

Or better yet,

This is rootlessness,

So we can dream with eyes open

Drifting on the cloud

How hard to fathom

How we will finally descend,

Which of nature’s laws allow

For our safe passage home

But we need a new kind of knowledge now, 

That knows not our questions

It’s like we never left at all

It is best, then, 

To follow the course 

Of the wayward clouds

And just drift

Like a child on a slide

Like a dreamer down river

Tuned to the stars above

And our sweet milky memories below

Letting them rest

So that we may rest

In this perpetual state of flight.

Photograph by Catherine L. Schweig

Tammy T. Stone is a Canadian writer, photographer and chronicler of life as it passes through us. Always a wanderer, she's endlessly mesmerized by people, places and everything in between; the world is somehow so vast and so small. She feels so lucky to have been able to work, learn, live and travel far and wide, writing, photographing and wellness-practicing along the way. She invites you to see some of her recent photography here and to connect with her on her writer's page, twitter and her blog, There’s No War in World, here.

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~