Cloud Poems

Rosenblatt, a Dutch-American writer, designer, and artist, devises a creation of cloud-gazing intensity. Through an interwoven quilt of poetry and sky, Ella accomplishes, in our view, two opposing goals at the same exact moment. Gorgeously constructed and written, this project offers the reader a period of respite and calm. In today’s world of screen time and hyper-connectedness, where attention has become a commodity and our lives are spent stressfully indoors, this is no small feat. And yet, like any good poem, these “Cloud Poems” are calls to action. Mesmerizing in their quiet energy, they ask us to take responsibility for what we give our attention to. As Thomas Merton writes, “I myself am part of the weather and part of the climate and part of the place, and a day in which I have not shared truly in all this is no day at all.” Ella Rosenblatt’s “Cloud Poems” tell us, in essence, to look up. 

[Source: Kira Homsher and John Darcy's Fall 2020 Editors' Note of The New River.]