Hey everybody! Welcome to this new beginning. I’m calling my blog Cloud, Snow and Sea because it represents the three physical states of water on The Blue Marble. Depending on conditions, the same stuff can be a gas, a solid or a liquid. A snowflake falls from the sky, melts on land and rivers back to the sea. Something changes while something remains the same. I briefly considered Grass, Cow, Hamburger, Shit to grab attention but figured the novelty might wear off after while.

Cloud, Snow and Sea can be a metaphor for a person in the changing circumstances of his or her life. In each succeeding present moment, we play various roles associated with our gender, language, nationality, ethnicity, religion and profession. Across time, we’re kids, grown-ups, seniors, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. The laws we rebelled against as youths, we enforce as adults. Though we are many things in this life, and experience a wealth of moods, something changes but something remains the same in all the ups and downs.

The sub-title of my blog is Poems and Whatnot. Poems doesn’t need much explaining. I write poems to celebrate my limited grasp of this world and my place in it. Most often, love is my theme. However Whatnot might benefit from some further light thrown upon it. I have a lot of interests, but am not an expert in any of them. I like to hope that sometimes, a little knowledge isn’t such a dangerous thing. I love music and mandolin, sports and Tai Chi Chuan, world travel, books of every conceivable genre, languages, especially Spanish and Ancient Greek, tidepools and stars, just to mention just a few. And then there’s my life. I love my life in all its manifold aspects, even when it breaks my heart and kicks me in the ass. Eclectic is a word I greatly respect. I will rephrase that dour old German sociologist Max Weber when I describe myself as a non-specialist with spirit and a sensualist with heart. So a Whatnot is a piece written on whatever interests me at the time, which changes with the regularity of the tides.

I am Cloud, I am Snow and I am Sea, all depending. I think you are too. Lets laugh and cry and wonder together as something changes and something remains the same. I’ll leave you with a poem.

A Leaf Turns Over

A leaf turns over
in the wind
on cobblestones
or was it
the small crackle
of a fire
sparking a victim?

Out of nowhere
a sudden breeze
reveals a scent
or was it
the dark tendrils
of her hair
coming closer?

When I’d landed
from the sea
seven voyages
I’d only
come back home with
bigger thoughts
of world wonder.

Caverns draw close
each to each
to pour their gifts
but was it
her warm tongue
or my own
that sowed the seed?

Marc Ladewig
Author of Odysseus-The Epic Myth of the Hero