California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera joined us on the Jefferson Exchange on Wednesday morning, October 16 (full audio here).
And when we asked him to share some of his work, he delivered a new poem, just written this morning on hotel stationery in Ashland.Herrera was as impressed with the morning clouds as we were, and wrote his poem about them.
Apologies to the artist: this is a transcription, and we don't know if this is how he would have punctuated it.
A cloud enters another...
another cloud, without effort.
It is creative, then it joins the heavens.
That is the greater art of giving and taking away:
taking while giving.
The cloud knows this without words.
It does not need words, even though it is a word.
A cloud... that is, it is merging
in front of our eyes.
