Sculpting Cloud Shadows

by Ray Ellis

Sculpting cloud shadows or any shadow is not possible. Shadows can be manipulated and changed somewhat by the texture they fall on, be it flat and smooth or jagged, sharp and hilly.Clouds are somewhat like people, like the world. They have shape and form but are constantly changing. You can’t rely on them to be there when needed; and sometime they just show up at the wrong time. They are real but like a ghost can dissipate and disappear. Clouds are like life itself; you can’t hold onto it, only chase it’s shadow.Poem excerpts-You can’t eat it, taste it, smell it or hear it.You can’t store it on a shelf to use it later.Good vision will help but sometime a blind man can see it.You can’t buy it, bank it, sell it or rent it, it is free.It’s worth is un-measurable, without it there is no you or me.Behind the calendar and behind the clock,one step ahead of the dawn,behind your back, time frolics on.I can’t live in the past. I can’t dwell in a place that dissipated like the morning mist. Yet I must carry the past with me, like a heavy anchor holding me back.

88 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2021

About the author

Ray began his law enforcement career with the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Orange County, California. After working for a number of years in the maximum security facility, he transferred to patrol working along Orange County's coast as well as the inner canyons and barrios. After 8 years he moved to Idaho and continued his law enforcement career, serving as an instructor for the Idaho POST Council.

Ray was first ordained into the ministry while living in Orange County and now serves as the Associate Pastor in his home church in Nampa, Idaho. A former United States Marine, he is a public speaker, communicating to groups of all sizes on the topics of community and personal safety. Since 1999 Ray has been a primary instructor for the Idaho POST Academy - Police Training Institution for Idaho- instructing on subjects of Arrest Control, Cultural Diversity and for the last five years exclusively on the topic of Instructor Development, where he teaches other officers to be POST certified instructors. He has served as both patrol officer and detective for the agency where he works. He has been married to the same woman for 27 years and has three children; two sons and a daughter. Ray lives with his family in Idaho.