shewhomust | Squiirels and clouds

Another night, another poetry launch, and I've already written about yesterday's on the company blog.

Briefly, the book being launched is called Wideyback, it's published by Red Squirrel Press and it's by James Oates, whose work I did not know at all. I liked some poems better than others, but was particularly taken by A Longing for Clear Blue Skies, seven linked stanzas about "The man who photographs clouds". Here are two of them:

iii
The man who photographs clouds
Takes images of snow
and ponders the possibilities
of capturing the same molecule of water twice,
years apart
and on different continents.

v
The man who photographs clouds
captures the spirit of the anvil cumulus
as he trawls the Nebraska reservations
stealing souls from the sky
drowning occupants of his box of tricks
sealed in acetate
leaving soul-less clouds to tease
the Saharas of emotionless images

the processor will look away,
let the machines do the crying.