“Windborne” by Kim McElroy – Eleven horses ride the wind
I smile as I watch the clouds float by Thinking of spirit and form In majesty they grace the sky Bringing heaven to earth as one.
The horses they gather in billowy folds Prancing and playing in sync Then just as quickly they disappear Were they really there, I think? ~ Kim McElroy
Perhaps like me you have occasionally stopped to gaze at clouds long enough to watch them form into familiar shapes. Often the images that appear in their rounded billows and wisps are the forms animals. Personally, I see horses, most of all. In 1989 I was traveling down a long highway in Wyoming and I saw an unusual cloud formation. I took a photograph of it. Later back at my art studio in Washington, I found I couldn’t stop gazing at the photograph. Then gradually, the shapes of horses started to appear. That first painting began a series I call “Horses in the Elements”.
Can you find the eleven horses riding the wind? I should say there are at least eleven, but you might find more than I did, because the shapes of these horses were naturally occurring in this cloud. In Bedouin legend, the Arabian horse was God’s gift to mankind, formed from a breath of southerly wind. Horses do seem like creatures born of wind. They can be as elusive and as free and wild as that unseen element.
The next time you see clouds, stop and count the horses. You may be amazed at what you will find.