Sky Songs

One night last week as the sun was setting...

The clouds started to catch fire. I couldn't turn away. I stood there, mute and insignificant. I was waiting for a song to start, or a harp, or trumpets... Yes, it was that beautiful. 

Then a bird started singing a plainsong somewhere close by.

 A sweet and quiet sound as if it was purring, but with a melody.

Do you suppose it knew how beautiful the sky was? 

Do you think that the song was it's reply? 

Kind of a "Thank you."?

 The song was short... only one small refrain. 

Then it stopped.

And, as the world went dark,

  I was reminded that we do need

 to celebrate what's right with the world

 and that nature is always there to give us examples

if we watch for them... and listen.

Clouds

"Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?"
~John Milton

 

 

 "The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober coloring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality."
~William Wordsworth

"I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around."  ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

"How bravely Autumn paints upon the sky
The gorgeous fame of Summer which is fled!"~ Thomas Hood

(Well, not quite yet. The heat of summer is still upon us.)
 

   "It had been gradually getting overcast, and now the sky was dark and lowering, save where the glory of the departing sun piled up masses of gold and burning fire, decaying embers of which gleamed here and there through the black veil, and shone redly down upon the earth...

...and then the darkness of an hour seemed to have gathered in an instant."  ~Charles Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop 

We had two rather amazing days of sunsets and then the wind shifted. Now we have smoke that has settled in from three fires in the mountains. It's very hot and humid and the smoke is like a shroud laying on the hills around us. These are what we refer to as "the dog days of summer". Hopefully, we will see a change in these horribly, hot days by the end of the week.