Banish the clouds with nature and poetry

Moon You Bring Light: Captivated by Clouds Prompt: Reciprocal

Moon – Clouds – Moods

Driving home yesterday evening on a dark road I have never travelled, but with the help of my Sat Nav, as it was a detour, I was struck by the moon.

I couldn’t see the moon, but it lit up the sky above me, and I realised that without it, I would find it very difficult to see on the windy country roads which are not well lit in the UK, and which I am not familiar with. There were few clouds to cover the moon on this night:

Thank you moon

I breathed a silent prayer of thanks.

Without the moon the metaphoric clouds would be looming. My driving would be slower; this being an unfamiliar and very dark road. I would be captivated by metaphoric, mood inducing, clouds; clouds of gloom closing in on me and darkening my day. It is so much easier to drive on a road you know well that is well lit.

But wait. The moon has banished the metaphoric clouds. I can see with this moon.

Often nature inspires me to write, as I have shared with you before. Just being out in nature lifts the spirits, and it is the same even when cloudy, when the sky is dark and the air is full of stars.

Sometimes we think we have little but we have nature, and we should treasure it.

Here is a short poem — written a couple of hundred years ago — to remind you of what you have when you feel like you have nothing:

Had I the heaven’s embroidered cloths,

Enrought with gold and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloth

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

[1] Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, William Butler Yeats, 1865–1839

A few years ago, I framed the poem, which I found on a postcard. It is a beautiful reminder to me to cherish the small things I have, which are free to all of us, and can only be found in the natural world.

Favourite stories this month are:

‘Partial Myth of Rainy Seattle’ — a really perfect short story by Akemi Sagawa

This one from ‘Writers Relief’ which is all about what I am writing most of the time when I am writing fiction. i.e. ‘Experimental Fiction: What Is It And Who’s Publishing It’ — The link is not working, so go there for the story if you don’t know a thing about experimental fiction and you would like to get educated.

‘And Smile and Pass it On…’ by Sahil Patel — (I hope I got that right)

With thanks to @Sahil Patel for the prompt

Go and banish those clouds….