Clouds

by Robert Sund

Clouds

      that come and go:

clouds that have come and

gone, returning.

Rain lifted up out of the ocean.

And carried over the fields

like a child to its mother.

*

Clouds

that wander in the night,

           above the mountains,

           below the moon.

Clouds

that hide the moon,

shadows of clouds over the desert,

startling the small night creatures

at the edge of the shadow.

*

Clouds

that fill up a day when

there seems nothing else.

Clouds

peaceful and wanted.

*

Clouds

   no one sees

far out on the oceans.

Clouds

no one needs

to see.

*

Bashō said:

      “So we don’t get

                tired of the moon,

      clouds come and go.”

From Taos Mountain, Anacortes, Washington: Poet’s House Press, 2007, page 29. This is the sanctuary of mind that welcomes haiku.