Goethe’s Poems for the Skies

“Since the dawn of our species, the water cycle’s most visible expression in the skies –[clouds]– has bewitched artists, poets, and scientists […] as a beautiful natural metaphor for the philosophy that there in an inherent balance to life, that what we give will soon be replenished.” Here, we read about the “singular quality of prayerfulness to clouds — a certain secular reverence undergirding their allure to both art and science” which drew 18th century writer and poet, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe to offer some deep and sincere reflections on the beauty of clouds.