Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

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Looking west from my backyard there's such lush gardens I don't take the time to look at clouds enough.

The first thing that came to mind from the word clouds is the Joni Mitchell song that earned Judy Collins a Grammy for Best Folk Performance or Folk Recording, “Both Sides Now”, in 1968.

So I took my little Nikon digital, ran out to my backyard and snapped a few cloud photos just at dusk on Friday evening.

With the mountains surrounding us here in Vancouver, I often forget to look up at the sky. We don’t get the variety of clouds like other places. When it’s cloudy, it’s just a blank cover of Stratocumulus clouds.

None of those Altocumulus or Nimbostratus giants that truly make castles in the air.

FACTOID: Joni Mitchell comes from Saskatchewan, my home province where the sky and the clouds are the most beautiful part of the prairie landscape.

As a kid, I used to spend lots of time watching the clouds form and shift and move — especially in the summer when thunder storms roll in regularly. Now those are dark, foreboding clouds for sure.

Joni Mitchell’s lyrics stand alone as wonderful word poems. Just in case you haven’t “looked at clouds from both sides now” in a while, here’s the lyrics to the song “Both Sides Now.”

Read and weep, my cloudy friends.

Both Sides Now
Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Ive looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Moons and junes and ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As evry fairy tale comes real
Ive looked at love that way

But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away

Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really dont know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say Ive changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living evry day

Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life at all
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life at all

Lyrics by Joni Mitchell.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 2:13:53 AM and is filed under JOURNAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.