Clouds

I don't know that I've ever seen clouds stay so still for so long a time. They were like the footprints made from above, not below, of benign giants with nothing but care and concern for us.

This bit of prose from Eugenio Montale, the late Italian poet:

"The man of today has inherited a nervous system which cannot withstand the present conditions of life. While waiting for the man of tomorrow to be born, the man of today reacts to the altered conditions not by standing up to them or by endeavoring to resist their blows, but by turning into a mass."

Brodsky had the notion that the footnote is where civilzation survives. I seem to remember it being somewhere in his book of essays, Less Than One.

Last evening I watched the clouds from my window for at at least ten minutes. They didn't make a move, and then they did. I took it as a sign.

Clouds over San Francisco, looking from west to east, 6:30 pm, 3/16/2020. Photo by author.