These are the Clouds

[Blue]

MUSHROOM CLOUD OF DOOM?



Does this cloud look like a mushroom in the sky? It appeared over Russia last month and had locals fearing that “doomsday” had arrived.
To many locals, the clouds looked like the ‘mushroom cloud’ of a nuclear explosion. The emergency services for the Siberian city of Kemerovo were deluged with calls.
While some feared a nuclear strike, other thought it might be an explosion in one of the nearby coal mines. The media started calling it the Siberian “Cloud of Doom.”
However, this ‘mushroom cloud’ was just a cloud, albeit a massive cumulonimbus cloud.

Fortunately, no one had declared war against the Siberian woodlands. Authorities were able to reassure the local residents that this unusually large cumulonimbus
cloud was perfectly natural.

WHAT IS A CUMULONIMBUS CLOUD?
Supercell storms are the strongest of thunderstorms, able to sprout tornadoes. (Indeed, within that week, Russia had a rare tornado rip through the city of Syktyvkar and
reports of a tornado or water spout near the former Russian Olympic city of Sochi.)

The supercell storm cloud swirls as high as 55,000 to 70,000 feet above the ground and is topped by a spreading cloud mass called an anvil. If the updraft is strong and
narrow enough, it can look like a mushroom cloud.

(I can't find a date on this blog post at The Old Farmer's Almanac, but the one comment was posted 2.15.17.)

(Side note: I pulled off the road last year as one of these cumulonimbus monsters grew like a mountain growing before my eyes. Cars and people were around me
and not one other looked up and gawked at that marvelous thing with me. I felt like I was in the presence of well, fuck, if not the Godz then I have no words for it.)

[Blue]

[Cordelia]

Blue wrote:

(Side note: I pulled off the road last year as one of these cumulonimbus monsters grew like a mountain growing before my eyes. Cars and people were around me
and not one other looked up and gawked at that marvelous thing with me. I felt like I was in the presence of well, fuck, if not the Godz then I have no words for it.)

Sometime ago I was stuck in morning traffic and frustrated that I didn’t make it through another long light. I looked up to see a double rainbow forming; it was breathtaking. If I’d missed stopping at the light, I’d have turned west and missed seeing those skyward gifts.

Song of the Stars

WHEN the radiant morn of creation broke,
And the world in the smile of God awoke,
And the empty realms of darkness and death
Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath,
And orbs of beauty and spheres of flame
From the void abyss by myriads came,--
In the joy of youth as they darted away,
Through the widening wastes of space to play,
Their silver voices in chorus rung,
And this was the song the bright ones sung.

"Away, away, through the wide, wide sky,--
The fair blue fields that before us lie,--
Each sun, with the worlds that round him roll,
Each planet, poised on her turning pole;
With her isles of green, and her clouds of white,
And her waters that lie like fluid light.

"For the source of glory uncovers his face,
And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space;
And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides:
Lo, yonder the living splendours play;
Away, on our joyous path, away!

"Look, look, through our glittering ranks afar,
In the infinite azure, star after star,
How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass!
How the verdure runs o'er each rolling mass!
And the path of the gentle winds is seen,
Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean.

"And see, where the brighter day-beams pour,
How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower;
And the morn and eve, with their pomp of hues,
Shift o'er the bright planets and shed their dews;
And 'twixt them both, o'er the teeming ground,
With her shadowy cone the night goes round!

"Away, away! in our blossoming bowers,
In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours,
In the seas and fountains that shine with morn,
See, Love is brooding, and Life is born,
And breathing myriads are breaking from night,
To rejoice like us, in motion and light.

"Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres,
To weave the dance that measures the years;
Glide on, in the glory and gladness sent,
To the farthest wall of the firmament,--
The boundless visible smile of Him,
To the veil of whose brow your lamps are dim."

~ William Cullen Bryant ~

[dada]

They Own The Wind

i tell ya,
did you take notice of the flag?
i couldn't believe it.
just as jim rice came to the plate,
the wind started blowing to left field.
it not only helped yastrzemski's homer,
but it hurt jackson's,
the wind was blowing to right field
when jackson hit the fly ball,
when yaz hit the homer
the wind was blowing to left field,
kept it from going foul.
strike one to piniella.
somebody told me
the red sox control the elements up here
i didn't believe 'em till today

October 2, 1978
American League East Playoff
New York at Boston
Mike Torrez pitching to Lou Piniella
Fourth inning, no outs, bases empty
Red Sox lead 1-0

(I found my copy of 'O Holy Cow! The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto)

[Cordelia]

^^^

[Cordelia]

[Cordelia]

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBNeygMW_LM

[dada]

From the lilac wall and the sea blue hills
curtainflags smacking themselves drop by drop
long-lived phoenixes breathe in the red clouds
jade mountains as hard as the sharp cobalt fringes of its feathers
confused and confounded in the fall of vermillion

drop by drop on the olive-green curtainsteel
in the fall of verticals and the violent violets
in the blue of its leaps and the beauty of exquisite flowers
the cat gathers together and lets go its shadows and its swords on each floor

the mauve of its claws tearing Veronese-green rays from the fall of verticals
behind the carrots to eat its eagle without fear or remorse
on the jade mountains the sulphur yellow of acrobatic monkey cries
pheasants called from the lilac wall at the sunrise over the sea

Hey beauty of exquisite flowers
the cat has gone off behind the trees
steel leaps drop on curtain hills
bluegreen rivers, and the sharp cobalt fringes of pearls
the sharp cobalt fringes of its swords on each floor

Hey beautiful one, do not look so hard as iron
cobalt palaces led straight to the heavens
the ochre of the lilac wall and the knife already embedded
jade cry embedded the spring

the poor bird crouching on the red clouds
detached its fringes as the rivers,
and smacking flags the feathers
fall bird clogs the sea

long-lived eternal lady of mustn't
without heavens beyond together
breathe in at a sunrise violets rage
tearing the mountains in straight swords beautiful verticals
the mauve and vermillion called red for shadows

and by hard exquisite has cat
its off behind scenery
go on people, do not look so hard at the scenery in your jar
the steel and the sharp cobalt fringes of pearls

the ochre of the lilac wall and the heavens blue hills
beyond the world of phenomena is an eternal spring
you mustn't believe that the cat has gone off
behind the carrots to eat its eagle without fear or remorse

Resurrection is animation that dance
from the limit of capacity in the sparkling star night.
the cat has gone off behind the fall of vermillion
and the confused acrobatic monkey red clouds
the mauve of its leaps and the violent violets of its claws hard as iron heavens

tearing Veronese-green rays from the sulphur yellow
the ochre of the lilac wall and the sharp cobalt fringes
the flags smacking their tongues and the knife already embedded
the cat gathers together and lets go its shadows and its swords on each floor

[Burnt Hill]

[chump]

[Burnt Hill]

[Blue]

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delight
Creation of the World
Outer wings (shutters), depicting the third day of creation



Bird-Headed Monster
Detail from right wing

[chump]

[Cordelia]

~ Sergey Petrov Vasil Ustyuzhanin ~


The Rape of Europa

By Ovid
Translated by Daryl Hine

From "Metamorphoses," Book II, 846-875

Majesty is incompatible truly with love; they cohabit
Nowhere together. The father and chief of the gods, whose right hand is
Armed with the triple-forked lightning, who shakes the whole world with a nod, laid
Dignity down with his sceptre, adopting the guise of a bull that
Mixed with the cattle and lowed as he ambled around the fresh fields, a
Beautiful animal, colored like snow that no footprint has trodden
And which no watery south wind has melted. His muscular neck bulged,
Dewlaps hung down from his chin; his curved horns you might think had been hand carved,
Perfect, more purely translucent than pearl. His unthreatening brow and
Far from formidable eyes made his face appear tranquil. Agenor's
Daughter was truly amazed that this beautiful bull did not seem to
Manifest any hostility. Though he was gentle she trembled at first to
Touch him, but soon she approached him, adorning his muzzle with flowers.
Then he rejoiced as a lover and, while he looked forward to hoped for
Pleasures, he slobbered all over her hands, and could hardly postpone the
Joys that remained. So he frolicked and bounded about on the green grass,
Laying his snowy-white flanks on the yellowish sands. As her fear was
Little by little diminished, he offered his chest for her virgin
Hand to caress and his horns to be decked with fresh flowers. The royal
Maiden, not knowing on whom she was sitting, was even so bold as
Also to climb on the back of the bull. As the god very slowly
Inched from the shore and the dry land he planted his spurious footprints
Deep in the shallows. Thus swimming out farther, he carried his prey off
Into the midst of the sea. Almost fainting with terror she glanced back,
As she was carried away, at the shore left behind. As she gripped one
Horn in her right hand while clutching the back of the beast with the other,
Meanwhile her fluttering draperies billowed behind on the sea breeze.