Noticing lviii - Mark Strand's "89 Clouds"

In 1999, poet Mark Strand and artist Wendy Mark collaborated to create a beautiful (I'm told) book about clouds, consisting of 89 one-line poems by Strand and Mark's exquisite monotypes. I learned about this book on Maria Popova's Brain Pickings (where you can read more about the book, and my source for the illustrations below), and was intrigued enough to search for the book online. I found it, but at an astronomical price—not surprisingly, since I expect it was released in a very limited edition, to accompany a gallery showing of their work. Being unable to rationalize spending $335 (Amazon), dearly though I would love to, I did the next best thing and gathered together both the poems and a few of the illustrations. The poems are like little koans, little brushstrokes, little puzzles, little moments of grace, little aaahhhs. I'm sure the original monotypes are gorgeous—but I will never know, alas.

1. A cloud is never a mirror
2. Words about clouds are clouds themselves
3. If snow falls inside a cloud, only the cloud knows
4. For every cloud there is another cloud
5. A cloud dreams only of triangles
6. A cloud is a season of white
7. The dazzle of clouds is a falsehood
8. The bones of clouds have been removed
9. The museum of clouds shows only Snow White
10. Clouds are soft fruit

11. The flowing of clouds is like afternoon after afternoon
12. If a parrot is lost in a cloud, it turns into a rainbow
13. Clouds are in love with horizons
14. One speaks into a cloud as on would a telephone
15. A sky without clouds is bald and blue
16. Clouds of the sea smell of the sea
17. Black clouds are noble and troubled
18. The cloud that was gone would never come back
19. The sorrow of clouds is beyond our imagination
20. Clouds are thoughts without words

21. Clouds are slaves of the wind
22. A cloud without shape is always open
23. Clouds are drawn by invisible birds

24. If clouds had arms, they would embrace

25. A cloud without you is only a clod

26. A cloud in Nevada is nothing in Utah

27. A horse is a cloud with eyes and a tail

28. Clouds at sunset put on their dresses and go out for the night

29. When a cloud smells of tuberoses it starts to die

30. The depth of a cloud depends on who's listening

31. A wild cloud should never been ridden

32. A dirty cloud is a dirty joke

33. An excess of cloud leads to despair

34. A cloud in disguise is more of the same

35. Every lake desires a cloud

36. Clouds in closets become clothes

37. The sane see themselves in one cloud, the mad in many

38. Three round clouds went back and forth

39. A necklace of cloud is a precious gift

40. An anklet of clouds is in bad taste

41. When a cloud forgets, distance grows

42. Clouds vanish before they are named

43. A cloud will follow whatever is moving, even a mouse

44. A cloud with furs tries to keep warm

45. A cloud with a head in it isn't a cloud

46. When a cloud barks, the dogs come running

47. We keep our vigils that clouds may live

48. One listens to the sound of clouds as to a distant whisper

49. A cloud is a false heaviness

50. When a cloud touches a cow nothing happens

51. A cloud with grass growing on it is a wrong cloud

52. A cloud is a cathedral without belief

53. The tedium of clouds is endless

54. A cloud is mansion without corners

55. A cloud lit from within is somebody’s study

56. Sinuous clouds float above Singapore

57. A humble cloud will never rumble

58. The intelligence of cloud cannot be overstated

59. November is National Cloud month

60. The Prince of Cloud will reign for years

61. The cloud carousel is a sight to behold

62. "Stand back, ye clouds!" it's a brave line

63. Windows in the cloud chateau always need cleaning

64. A trivial cloud sits on a column

65. It is not like a cloud to be in two places at once

66. Clouds cannot stand in the way

67. Clouds cannot see what we do under the umbrella

68. You can ban clouds, but so what

69. There are the volumetric days of cloud parades

70. You are so handsome you must be a cloud

71. It's a peanut, no, it's a cloud

72. Hola, thou pampered clouds of Asia

73. Super clouds speed across the sky

74. When a cloud hums, the willow weeps

75. Tell me, old heart, who is the reddest cloud of all

76. A cloud that left a million years ago is back

77. A vertical cloud calls for champagne

78. Call me back, my cloud, my love

79. The kingdom of cloud disappeared overnight

80. A poet looks at a cloud the way a man looks at a shrub

81. I love the cloud in you, she said, looking at my shirt

82. She was made of ice and I of cloud

83. Ohio is mine, she said, it doesn't need clouds

84. Golden memories, golden clouds, golden loss

85. Squeeze an orange and get juice, squeeze a cloud and get nothing

86. The blond secretaries of the Royal Cloud lounge at the pool

87. Here comes the cloud again, all foam and glare

88. Slender shafts of sunlight shoot through the cloud

89. Feats of the inhuman: cloud love