Wow

The beauty that surrounds is astounding. Big Frank shot these clouds today from Hauser, Idaho looking west. These are pretty majorly beautiful clouds. Dramatic and hugely dominating; yet it is almost as if the sky doesn't matter. Big Frank wonders how many people even noticed, and surely there were not more than perhaps 20 people who brought this image and their reaction into any conversation. Those who saw it were enriched. Those who did not may not have been impoverished, but in some way they lost something. This is the SKY: it is all around us and it changes hour by hour, and day by day - never the same. So then the thought comes to mind - if this is missed, what other source of beauty and wonder is there that Big Frank is oblivious to. Big Frank is thinking down - what's going on in that ground. Looking down here, boss:)

Cloud Quiz

Big Frank was on the road yesterday, and above him - towering above him - were some of the most spectacular cloud formations that Big Frank has ever seen. These were cumulous clouds that carried themselves high, traveled in packs, and were everywhere. At first Big Frank thought that this phenomena was only present in the first city - above it that is. Such was not the case - those clouds covered the state of Washington (east of the Cascades). Big Frank had his camera and snapped a bunch of photos. Below are three. OK, here's the deal - name the city above which the clouds hover, and the cloud is yours (first one to name it gets it that is); however, if you missname the city, then the cloud gets you!

Cloud #1.

Cloud #2

Cloud #3

[All photos: Big Frank Dickinson]

Up in the clouds

Up in the clouds they look much different than from down below. They seem at the same time more insubstantial and more other-worldly (foreign). Here are some examples that Big Frank snapped while up among them.

Clouds

Clouds: what do they mean to us - what do we mean to them?

[Photos by Big Frank Dickinson]

Clouds - prose poem

Pathetic Fallacy for Whom?
---- Big Frank Dickinson

The clouds were curious whether the configurations of people, plants and animals on earth told them something about their cloud life. Could it be that what was going on down there, in some way, predicted or mirrored important information for clouds. Surely it could not just be a coinicidence that the day he dissipated (took him five years to get it back together) he saw a man disappear into a house. His aunt never tired of telling him about the day that a sudden upcurrent of wind carried her high into the somethingsphere, and this was just as she saw woman taking off in an airplane - this was much more than coincidence. Earthly signs - portents of things to be for the clouds. Then as the sky slowly cleared and they felt themselves disappearing they looked in vain for signs of sadness below, which was strange because they saw none.

Portents?

Just when Big Frank was ready to consign the puffy portents of June to the autumnal pile of drifting leave, there appears in the sky the full rich clouds that signal good things. Well, OK, that's a bit of the pathetic fallacy, but who is immune to that? We all look for portents to match the hopes that we have - some kind of objective (or so we think, or want to think) sign that good things are coming etc. etc. Big Frank saw his today - but hey, that cloud didn't just have his name on it. It's cloud with the silver lining (note that underbelly of silver?). It's going to be OK - all's well, and all will be even better - soon - very soon!

Autumn Clouds

Big Frank has a new camera! What better way to start than with clouds. The picture above was taken from his deck looking east. It is the sunset reflected on the eastern clouds receding with the glow of the sunset lingering - but for a few short minutes. Darkness seems to fall in the fall; it comes quickly and suddenly. The clouds on which it shines are not the large cumulus clouds full of hope and tinged always with the possible threat of storms, no these are autumnal clouds. They are nostalgic, gentle, lingering banks that fade easily into the dark.

Clouds over Spokane

X Fading Away

The Fading X
---- Big Frank Dickinson

X marked the spot; and what an X it was;
Time it was and what a time it was; it was
An etherial X, it was an airy X; and it was
Quite evident (to me anyway), that the X was, it was there
Right up above me pointing down in
An obvious way (that is what the center
Of an X does) that is its purpose, after all,
To point to a spot, in this case ME, the sign,
The X and me. So in a way I was pointing
With the X - this is where I am. I am the spot.
An X in the sky cannot mark the sky; that
Is only an abstraction, an aspiration, a reaching
Of sorts: you know "a man's reach should exceed
his grasp . . .". That X above me was my excessive
Indication - the overly obvious unreachable mark of me
but now . . .The X is fading, slowly inevitably melting
Into the blue background of everyday everything
And me? I'm still here, but soon that here
Will be there, a there without an X, as it was.
No more idealized, ethereal, overreaching leads;
No more, I'm on the ground, and the only way
of finding me is through me - no more X's.

A Cumulous of Company
---- Big Frank Dickinson

The open road is flat and gray, winding
Somewhat with broken stripes that mark
That center, keeping you to some middle
Course that you set for yourself
Some time ago, with some prefixed goal
Of one sort or another, and the grind,
The whining finds you rolling along with
No more thought of the glory that accompanies
Your journey than the thought given that
That you are a glorious accompaniment to someone else.
Still they are with you as surely as the clouds
Above and in the same way as their everychanging
Configurations they ecompass you within
Their beauty; your friends' constant but changing
Interactions is your unique but often unnoticed skyscape.
The true beauty of the course is marked
By them; their impressions mark our
Days, as surely as our connections mark theirs.
Look not just where you are going, but also
Who it is that is traveling with you for that is the
Beuaty you're in; it's not the road - it's the
Cumulous of company that travels with you.

[Photo by Big Frank Dickinson: just west of Deer Lodge, Montana]

Clouds: Drifting and Sizzling

(1) The High Sky Drifter

1. Yes, I know taking the usual course is the thing to do. Follow the wisdom of the crowd and get in line. It's all very clear down there, they think. But . . . actually up here, on my own course things are much clearer. Yes, it is a little lonely, and if one of them should choose to join me that wouldn't be bad; of course, not just anyone: I've made that eminently clear. Maybe that one will; it's not that the invitation wasn't made. I did make it pretty clear what the advantages were and all: I'm good company, the view is gorgeous, I'm very dependable and all, and because I'm solidly sure of my course and direction, so there really would be no risk. So, maybe tomorrow; and if not . . . well, maybe next week.

(2) The Sizzler

Look at what I emanate. Just look! There is not other cloud in the sky that gives it off like I do. Of course, there is a danger in doing this. I know; everytime that I give off a bit of myself I dissipate somewhat. Still, I have heard from so many that what you give comes back threefold. I do hope that it starts coming soon, because if not there is not going to be much left of me. But: what a way to go! What a way to go!


[All Photos by Big Frank Dickinson: 1. above the Spokane River, 2. above Spokane Falls Community College.]

Cloud Stories - again

1. X MARKS THE SPOT

X marks the spot - the spot right above you that is marking your spot. You are the spot. Now, the question: if I am the spot what's the spot for. X marks me indicating that I am that which is to be noted - by me, or someone else? Someone who can't find me can now look up in the sky, and from that giant X find me. Kind of like the Magi looking for the baby Jesus. No, not that, I am not another baby Jesus; it's just that for those, like the Magi, who are out looking for me, there is now an X in the sky that they can use to navigate by to locate me. I'm under the X; yes directly under it - look - that's me.

2. In Suspension (for now)

Encased in this dog-like carapace and floating with white lace around me, I'm getting a little bit restless. It is entrancing and quite relaxing to be able to hold so still like this, and at the same time gently, ever so gently rise up. Why the dog-like wrapping; because I'm thinking that it really does not match my interior in any way whatsoever? I would have chosen something like a an umbrella, or a lantern, or perhaps a balloon! Those are all slowly floating and light (OK, maybe the umbrella isn't all that light, but certainly the other two). I feel much too large for what I am. My purposes are much smaller, and this is all too public and discussable. A breeze, a breeze, my dog-shape for a breeze.

3. CREATION

That burst? Where the hell did it come from? At first, as I remember, we were all together here in a pretty compact (for a cloud anyway) lump. Look below, at our cousins, aunts, and neighbors; see how together they all are. Look at those boundaries that they are all abiding by too. And . . . the honored space in between. That's the way it used to be with us too. There we were slowly (together) marching across the sky. I think we were just above uncle Cumucu, and we'd been either there or above aunt Ciricu for - well for as long as we can remember. Then someone among us (not sure who) said they had an idea; something about change about growth, and the next thing you know Kaboom! Now what's the family going to think, and where is this going to take us? Still - it is different now, and I'm kind of interested in seeing where this is going to all end up; although I notice that it's becoming more and more me and less and less us. . . hmmmm?

[All Photos by Big Frank Dickinson: 1. above Big Frank's house, 2. & 3. above Spokane Falls Community College]

Around the bend

(1) Turning the corner going around the bend (there is spot of blue above me) I'm going round the bend. It is not the blue that is leading me - it is the clouds tinted black that highlight this course that I seem to be drawn to: inevitably drawn to this turn. I could turn around; go back to that intersection that I saw not to far back. No, I'm heading onward around the bend. I'll take my chances because I am determined to follow this course even if it takes me around the bend.



(2) Why go around the bend? WTF?

Clouds and Stories

(1). Spokane is only the underdrop for these clouds that carry a different story for every single person that they cover. The guy in the tall white building in the center of this photo is not even aware that these clouds carry a story for him; it is carried by the center darkness of these clouds which reflect his brooding insecurity about the likelihood that his co-workers respect him. They never defer to him in conversations, never follow-up on any topic changes that he makes, never laugh at his jokes, and it seems that sometimes they look down when he walks towards them. The darkness of these clouds is his.

(2). The illuminated center of these clouds reflects the hope of the graduates lined up beneath them. Their period of study is over and now they glow with accomplishment and determination to take that next step in their lives for which they believe this period of study has prepared them for. For some it will have been a preparation for what comes next; however, for others the preparation will be of a different sort. It will have been an unacknowledged preparation in that what happened while at college in the hidden curriculum outside the classroom, something that they were not even aware of will carry them through connections, personal growth, and acquired perseverance on a road that they never expected to ever be on - be it's coming.

(3). The unlikely shape of this cloud leads the man below to believe that it carries significance for him. Nobody looks at a typical round cloud, or a blanket of clouds and sees anything of significance in them. This cloud's unique shape prompts thoughts derived from contrived images. This man does not see Mickey Mouse ears, nor does he see two trolls on a teeter-totter; he sees the two poles of himself - his ying and his yang joined in the middle and looking up at each other. For him, it means that he has met his soul mate - he recognizes her and is a peace with this knowledge. And this is very strange, because he doesn't believe in soul mates!

Trail Running and Clouds!

Big Frank wishes that he could run in the clouds. Yeah, back to clouds again. It seems like Big Frank has not been looking up enough, so today he had his head in the clouds, which is a little bit dangerous both when running and also when driving. Some of the clouds appeared to Big Frank when he was in his car and he had to drive (at times) quite some distance to get the right shot. He likes to get as much cloud in the picture as possible, and NO telephone wires. Including a little green border is not a bad idea, but clouds need to dominate.

Look at those those clouds that Big Frank captured above. These were out there all day and Big Frank chased them! They blew Big Frank away. This is, by the way, on Big Frank's favorite side road for running. These are good omen clouds; look at them and ask yourself: is this not a great life that I'm living? Then know, as Big Frank knows: it is going to get much better very soon. Just wait and you will see! It's coming very soon!

Then Big Frank gets home and goes out on his deck, and looks to the east and - NO WAY! Yes, indeed there is an even more spectacular display waiting. Now we all know that everything happens for a reasons (well, some know): and for those of you who do believe that, here's a question for you: why were those clouds waiting for Big Frank, and does it mean what Big Frank thinks it means?

Clouds In Between

Big Frank is now in Seattle. He drove from Spokane to Wenatchee and then over Stevens Pass to Seattle - all the way on Highway #2, which some say is the most beautiful highway in the U.S. It certainly does seem to be the most beautiful. One wonders why people are so in love with interstate systems - you miss so much.

Two highlights along the way were Dry Falls, just south of Coulee Dam, and, of course, Wenatchee. Nestled in the Columbia River valley with towering hills on both sides of the river, it is a beautifully situated city. It is conveniently located about half-way between Spokane and Seattle - a perfect place to spend the night on the way. This morning before heading out to Seattle there were beautiful white streaks of clouds, looking almost like whipped cream on top of the Wenatchee hills. Big Frank was able to snap a few shots - see the one above - before reluctantly leaving the Apple City. Big Frank will be travelling through again on his way back to Spokane. Highway 2 all the way. Work tomorrow but on the road by midafternoon.


All photos by BFD.

Cloudy!

Big Frank realized that clouds need some space between them in order to be appreciated, in order to capture their uniqueness. When they all come together in a show of cloudy unity it is dark. That is what "cloudy" means: it means nothing but clouds, and that makes it pretty much just one cloud.

Today was cloudy. However, not completely. As the attached photo indicates, there was a glimmer of sky (look in the lefthand corner), and in time (although there is no accompanying photo to prove this - you'll just have to take Big Frank's word for it), parts of the sky did clear, and some of the sun came out. What does this all mean? Following the pathetic fallacy (Big Frank is still riding that horse) it means that there is a temporary clouding over of prospects, as it were, but that in time that will clear, and the blue sky with its white lace will return and be even more appreciated than before, due to its brief absence.

And so the cloudy day sits above you like an unanswered question. Live it in the manner of Rilke's advice to a young poet to:

... have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903
in Letters to a Young Poet

Incorrigibility

Incorrigibility
---- Big Frank Dickinson

Beyond fixing, that's what they say - worn out.
Oh, it seemed alright for quite some time,
what with the hum and buzz and all that;
thought it was going to last forever.
It went not away but into transformation.
We all have that in built incorrigibility.
Dead set on heading pellmell down the road,
you look in the rear-view mirror and, hell, it's like
going backwards forwards, what slips away
tells you that you were there. Hey, it's gone!
Wait a minute - let me dwell on that for a minute.
The time expands in a kind of stop frame analysis
that takes place with multiple gaps. Recollection in,
well not tranquility, rather in a heightened state
of loss, grief? No regret. Fascinating replay
from a different angle. Strange how the view
can be circular, can be various - cameras in
every corner both inside and out and replayed
in streaming time. Certain scenes eat up what
came in between. Certain scenes are gone,
Uncertain scenes also get their share of
attention, what is not replayed are the contents of your closet.
How many times have you seen that, or the carpet in
your hallway, the front door, and the back end of your garage?
But bring in the emotions in full dress and then
you have an attraction - memory in cahoots not with
your front lawn, not with the hallway light, and certainly not
with your cornflakes, but with your dopamine surge,
your heartache, your fear, and your laughter.
That's what's incorrigible - and it's a good thing too
because you'd have nothing to review if they weren't
there carving those moments into your heart.

Cycling leads to an EMERGING THOUGHT!

Big Frank was out on the bike today. It was a spectacularly beautiful day. He did the ride to Idaho and back on the Centennial Trail and it was smooth going all the way. Big Frank feels like he's gotten his groove back again.

And above him - you know it - the clouds were doing their thing. Another day with low hanging cumulus clouds slowly meandering across the sky from west to east. Today Big Frank was struck by how these clouds resembled thoughts. Some of them were large and looming, others were slowing forming with dark interiors (who knows maybe those were actually silver linings!), and still others were appearing as from nowhere. These are similar to thoughts that come upon you leaving you wondering how and why. Big Frank took a photo of one such overpowering idea (cloud) that slowly by inevitably rises from beyond the horizon. It looks like a good one - where has it been hiding? And why today? No matter - Big Frank welcomes it realizing that he has actually been waiting for this one! Finally, here it is!

Clouds and the Pathetic Fallacy

OK - Big Frank is still looking up into the sky and is continually amazed at what's going on up there. Not just the large stuff floating around with the whole parade of clouds, but the swirling, fluid changes that are continually happening within each cloud that you can see if you look closely. Beyond that you can also find clouds or whole cloud-scapes that reflect what is going on inside of you. This is a pathetic fallacy (note: here pathetic is not a pejorative term but rather is related to empathy; in this case the clouds are empathizing with you - they are reflecting in their appearance what is going on emotionally with you). This literary term, coined by John Ruskin, was especially prevalent in 19th century romantic poets like Wordswoth, Shelly, and Cowper. However you can also find it used in contemporary poets too like John Ashberry and Mary Oliver. Anything along the lines of: "the sky wept" or "the angry wind blew" or the "exuberant south wind" is a fallacy because of course the sky can not cry, nor can the wind be angry etc.

Now, having said that, take a look up in the sky - do it tomorrow. I defy you to not find a cloud, if there is one, that doesn't carry a bit, or perhaps a lot, of you inside it. The sky will speak to you reflecting back at you what's going on inside you. It's like a giant mirror above you all the time. So with that - here's a photo I took today: it sure does look like emerging joy to Big Frank! And, as we all know, the sky knows best! This sure bodes well for Big Frank!