Every Cloud - The 250th Anniversary of the birth of Luke Howard (1772 – 1864)

• < Previous Event
• Next Event >

Comment by Sapphireblue on January 28, 2023 at 1:40

I was previously facilitator of Highgate Poets - a group of poets f...  See the poem below.

I still have copies to sell if you're doing an event.  email me at

ameryt@hotmail.com

I'm a performance poet (Anna Meryt) and organise poetry performances in North London.  You can look me up on Google. 

titled The Man Who Named The Clouds.

Vicky Olliver

 

The Man Who Named The Clouds

At a time of empire,
high seas and slavery,

Luke Howard of Tottenham,
preferred to look up,

sought the beauty of the clear blue sky,
pondered on the cause of rain,

watched as clouds formed

on the vast sky-canvas over London,
then caught them with a name:
cumulus, stratus, cirrus, nimbus.

Heaps, layers, wispy curls,
cauliflowers, cotton wool balls,
crystals made of ice.

He classified the ephemeral,
categorised the ever-shifting,
organised the constantly-changing.

Quaker, chemist, a family man,
but clouds were his first love.

Luke Howard, meteorologist, 1772 -1864, lived at Bruce Grove, Tottenham.

 

Comment by Sapphireblue on January 28, 2023 at 2:01

Some of that got lost somehow.  This anthology was the 28th published by Highgate Poets, a group of poets who had been meeting since 1977, who were from all over North London.  The group was closed at the beginning of the pandemic after a 46 year run.

I facilitated this active group for 5 years and three of us put together and edited this anthology.  The cover is of a painting by a local Crouch End artist - Alan Lancaster of a scene from Primrose Hill. We decided to feature Vicky Oliver's poem The Man Who Named The Clouds, in the anthology title.  I still have copies available to sell.

Anna Meryt

www.ameryt.com

ameryt@hotmail.com

Comment by Bruce Castle on January 29, 2023 at 15:12

Rather belated response, thank you Anna for posting. At the Museum we don't get any notifications of messages on our listings, so I am sorry i hadn't seen your message until now. I will email you separately this week. Thank you once again - looks very promising to add to a future event. 

Add a Comment