To Become a Cloud
by Carol Bell Carol Bell

After studying biology and chemistry at the University of Colorado, Carol Bell went on to a career in the pharmaceutical industry. Now retired, she can focus on her writing. She studied at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado, earning a degree in English and has attended the Aspen Writer's Conference and Moab Confluence Conference. She has studied with Colette Inez, Christopher Merrill, Edward Hirsch, Amy Irvine, Dr. Barry Laga, and Craig Childs. Mother of an adopted Vietnamese War orphan, she has been active in volunteer work for child and adoption related organizations.

New work has appeared or is forthcoming in Bayou, The Broome Review, California Quarterly, Cape Rock, Forge, Milk Money, Mobius, Pilgrimage Magazine, RiverSedge, and Talking River.

breath streams rivers oceans
into your lungs and out
into yellow-blue mornings
into deep rocky canyons and
into the leaves and roots of an aspen forest

breathe streams rivers oceans
into your lungs and out
over prairie grasses shaking in the wind
over the ragged arms of a saguaro
over stones and sands of beaches

breath streams rivers oceans
as you sail in an ice-trailed sky
above the shadows of hills
above rugged rain-washed mountains
above the stones and sands of tomorrow

whisper with the breath that takes you
into a stream a river an ocean
into yellow-blue mornings
into the arms of a saguaro
into the shadows of hills
and into the leaves and roots of an aspen forest


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