My Mother's Diary: "Uncloudy Day"

"Cloudless days are bad days"

Hello, Poetry Friend

This month I’m sharing a few of the poems collected in a section of my website called My Mother’s Diary. Each poem I am writing about here is also published in my first book, The Joy of Poetry, which is about losing my mom and finding poetry.

“Uncloudy Day” is a 19th century hymn, which I first heard on Willie Nelson’s sing on his Troublemaker album. In our Austin household, where my parents attended the very first Austin City Limits broadcast with Willie at the helm, the red-headed stranger’s music was a staple. I often think of this song when I look up and see clear-blue sky.

Where I live, I see months of clear-blue sky.

But not everyone thinks that’s a good thing.

When we went to see the place my mother picked to be buried, a cremation garden surrounded by the natural landscaping prized in the Texas Hill Country, on a cliff above a lake, something happened to remind me of that hymn.

–The Joy of Poetry

Uncloudy Day
     also published in The Joy of Poetry

Cloudless days are bad days,
my son says
(hence, half a lifetime of bad

days for this Texas boy).
He comes with us this afternoon with full sun
to see the spot where Mom will be buried. But

when we arrive, look down at the plot,
he touches my arm, points up
at the one lone cloud in the sky.

– Megan Willome

Happy poeming!

Megan