Welcome to Poetry Friday, a tradition started by Renee La Tulippe and explained HERE.
Today I am sharing on the topic of dawn. A new year is dawning, and that's probably reason enough, but "dawn" kept popping up this week... if you'll excuse the pun... and I decided to write about it.
I'm a fan of Diane Ackerman's writing and had read two of three of her books before I came across Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and other ways to Start the Day. The title spoke to me because I'm fascinated by the in-betweens, when I can't tell day from night, or green from blue. Also, cranes are on my bucket list. So I ordered the book and read just one entry about a winter dawn before being hooked. Here she writes about a winter sky:
An opalescent sky becomes the stinging blue of mosque tiles or stage scenery. It's an azure blue, from the ancient word for lapis lazuli, the intense blue mineral flecked with gold that has emblazoned church and palace walls since antiquity. Polished lapis gives soul to mosaic, including dawn's chimeras of jumbled outlines, blurred edges, and phantom forms. We bundle up but trees go naked in winter. I've always loved the way sky is captured in their bare limbs. Held by the delicate tracery of twigs, sky resembles light pouring through leaded stained-glass windows.
If you enjoy beautiful writing, especially nature writing, I highly recommend Diane Ackerman. I know I will love the rest of Dawn Light. It was my first dawning of the week.
The second dawn came from Margaret Simon, who shared a photo prompt by Mary C. Howard this week. It's actually a sunset photo, but I wrote about it as a sunrise... a dawn. My poem is below.
Photo by Mary C. Howard, found on FB
Dawn
Gray city
Gray mist
Gray beach
Gray clouds
Bold black steel
Frames the scene
A man in black walks
Toward a brilliant sunrise
Washing the low sky
Egg yolk yellow
Mango orange
Hibiscus red
A new day
Rises up
© Karen Eastlund
As if these two dawns weren't enough, a friend named Dawn contacted me and offered help for some town projects! It dawns on me that I am richly blessed.
Thanks to Marcie Flinchum Atkins for hosting today. You can find her blog and the links to other Poetry Friday friends HERE.
Wishing you all a good week.
