Where the river cross
Crosses the lake
Where the words
Jump off my pen
And into your pages
Do you think
Just like that
You can divide
This you as yours
Me as mine to
Before we were us
If the rain has to separate
From itself
Does it say "pick out your cloud?"
Pick out your cloud
If there is
A horizontal line
That runs from the map
Off your body
Straight through the land
Shooting up
Right through my heart
Will this horizontal line
When asked
Know how to find
Where you end
Where I begin
"Pick out your cloud"
How light can play
And form a ring of rain
That can change bows into arrows
(I found a thrill)
Who we were isn't lost
Before we were us
Indigo in his own
Blue always knew this
If the rain
Has to separate
From itself
Does it say pick out your cloud


Lyrics submitted by merchantpierce

Your Cloud Lyrics as written by Tori Ellen Amos

Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Your Cloud song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

12 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +2
    General Comment

    nobody's commented on this one yet? pokepoke*

    okay. me first then. har har.

    ahem

    the song to me basically says.. "even if we are separated physically, we'll never be truly separated from each other. we are changed as a result of having been together, even if only for a brief moment and things will NEVER change back."

    keyyoooon May 16, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I think it is more about re-finding yourself after leaving a relationship -- and not necessarily a physical one, either and acknowledging the influence that that person has had on your life, and maybe even honouring it. I get the sense that the person she is talking to doesn't get that. This is a very wise song.

    pjaneon January 01, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    In scarlet stories Tori talks about how this song is about separation and segregation. The tearing apart of a tear is impossible... She refers to a national monument near Memphis that acknowledges where a lot of the Cherokees died on the trail of tears as they were on their way to indian territory. The song is about separating that which we cannot separate...strand and molecules still exist. She says that taking people away from their land doesn't that mean that pieces of them won't remain...

    berryswirlon October 25, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Yes, I agree mostly with BerrySwirl. If the rain had to seperate from it self, would it say "Pick out your cloud" is like saying, "If the people had to seperate from themselves, would they say, pick out your land?

    This cannot be done - people belong to all the land. America knows this.

    The Native American's had their land, and Americans have theirs. America realizes that she will always have peices of her old self...what she used to be. But it will be within what she has BECOME. She's not quite exactly the same as she was, because she has all these new layers.

    Who we were isn't lost before we were US. You can't divide the land with a line, just as Native American's are taking this new American into their lives as they did their old world.
    The line itself wouldn't know where one part ends and one begins.

    Indigo is his own, blue always knew this implies that they all know that their world was very different before, and that's fine. They will always know it WAS different. But the two together are similar colors.

    She is saying each entity came together to join what it is now...

    parasolon September 02, 2009   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    @berryswirl thanks a lot for this bit of information! i would have never thought of this interpretation myself and it's nice to know what tori originally meant with the song. i'll add my own thoughts on the song, although they differ from tori's intention quite a bit.

    to me, 'your cloud' always was about divorce. i've never been through something like that but it describes what i imagine a divorce must feel like (at least to the party that didn't initiate it). (which isn't all that different from what berryswirl wrote, i think. seperating people from their land is a bit like a forced divorce as well... well, let's carry on)

    "do you think just like that you can divide this? you as yours, me as mine, to before we were us?" that's what the narrator asks his or her ex-partner in my interpretation. "do you think you can just sign a few papers and everything will be back to before we decided to make our seperate lives one? to before we make 'me' and 'you' 'us'?" because to him or her it still feels like an 'us'. (i'll just stick with a her for now) and she can't understand how he can walk around in the house and be like "this is my chair, this is your desk, which of the paintings do you want to keep?". to her this 'us' can't be separated, like rain does not separate from itself by saying "pick out your cloud".

    i never fully understood the part about the horizontal line. but i always felt like it was something similar to what i already wrote: there is no defined place where she ends and he begins. and that's why she feels like it's impossible to just cut their lives apart in one place.

    the second verse was always about healing, in my opinion. because she remembers that her original self, the woman that she was before she merged with him, isn't lost. it's like together they were 'blue', which is one and can't be split if you don't look too closely. but if you look closely you see that they are still seperate beings. perhaps she is 'indigo' and he is 'ultramarine' or something like that. i always felt that perhaps this thought helps her a little by making her see that she can still be herself, even though he's no longer there. even though she's not used to being someone that isn't one with him.

    so well. in the end my interpretation turned out pretty differently from the native americans-thing that tori wanted to say with the song. but still ... ;-)

    thekindofgirlon June 30, 2010   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    I can't think of a more beautiful song about seperation. When you've spent part of your life with someone, it's hard to tell where you end and they begin and vise verse. Leaving them is like leaving a part of yourself behind, even if logically speaking it's the best option.

    UhHuhHeron May 29, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    One of my fave songs from Scarlet's Walk. Still get me teary eyed. My name comes from this song.

    mycloudon June 22, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i think this song is more about a break up, it's like if she didn't want to leave him, but she's remembering all that they shared and all that was theirs. and now that they split and find a new road in their lives they have to go back in time where they weren't "us" but "me" ...you and your cloud...maybe? lol, i really don't know, i'm just doubting right now...

    coldclayon July 15, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    In scarlet stories Tori talks about how this song is about separation and segregation. The tearing apart of a tear is impossible... She refers to a national monument near Memphis that acknowledges where a lot of the Cherokees died on the trail of tears as they were on their way to indian territory. The song is about separating that which we cannot separate...strand and molecules still exist. She says that taking people away from their land doesn't that mean that pieces of them won't remain...

    berryswirlon October 25, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    the music is so sexy. it makes me want to slow dance and make love.

    Sleepagenton November 05, 2008   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version. Great version of a great song,
Album art
When We Were Young
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Album art
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.