A good friend sent me this photograph last week on his way home from work. I thanked him. I saved the photograph and set it as the desktop background on my computer screen. 

   I have been looking at this stunning picture every day and thinking I would try to figure out what was happening in that evening sky. My friend noted that the clouds were in front of high winds, forecast to be around 40 m.p.h. He did not identify the cloud types or suggest anything about a front, a low- or high-pressure system, or ask me to interpret or explain. He did tell me, however, that he pulled off the road to take this photograph.   That was all I needed to know about these clouds.

   Instead of consulting my cloud charts and meteorology textbook, I found my poetry book and "The Tables Turned" by William Wordsworth. Here is an excerpt: 

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

 Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
 Our meddling intellect
 Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
 We murder to dissect.

  Enough of Science and of Art;
  Close up those barren leaves;                               
  Come forth, and bring with you a heart
  That watches and receives.

To read the full poem, click here.