---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Coleman, Guy
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 18
number: 8
published: 1915-06
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Guy Coleman, "Clouds of Summer: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 18, no. 8 (June 1915): 705–706.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1808unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1808unse
start_page: 705
end_page: 706
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-06)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1808unse
  publication_year: 1915
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1915, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Clouds of Summer: A Poem

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Clouds of Summer
                Silken soft clouds,
                  That sail through the blue,
                Turn your ear earthward,
                  I've a message for you.

                Your flight is so noiseless
                  We scarcely would know
                You float free above us,
                  So silent, so slow!
                Oft I've watched you       in   awe,
                  As you drifted along;
                Your passing a poem,
                  Your beauty, a song!
                Our    lives   have been brightened
                   By your redolent red:
                 Beautified, and enriched,
                   O  friends, overhead!

                 Our burdens were lightened
                   Because of your gold.
                 So dream not, O sailor,
                   Your story's untold.
                 Our souls have been whitened,
                   By striving to blend
                 In self with white purity,
                   Like thine, passing friend.

                 At times we were frightened
                   By your black or your gray;
                 'Twas but warning you gave us
                   To be humble alway.
                 Then think not, O rover,
                   Your lesson's untaught;
                 The world is far better,
                   And ye are not forgot.
                 So sail on forever,
                   Through heaven's deep blue,
                 For we will be happy,
                   With memories of you.
MIDWAY, UTAH                                           GUY Coi.EMAN

<!-- page:706 -->

TROOP 3, M. I. A. SCOUTS, NINTH WARD, OGDEN, MARCH 24, 1915

             A