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.
What a beautiful collection of dawns. I will have to check out some more of Diane Ackerman's writing. That excerpt you shared is gorgeous. I am enjoying seeing sandhill cranes fly overhead as they migrate over us for the next couple of months. If you really want to get into cranes, check out the International Crane Center near the Wisconsin Dells.
ReplyDeleteLovely photo and poem! I think I could certainly learn and be inspired by Ackerman's amazing images. Thanks for the book recommendation.
ReplyDeleteLove all your dawns and dawnings!! I'm a Diane Ackerman fan too, but haven't read Dawn Light. Thanks for the heads up! ~ jama
ReplyDeleteI love Acherman's books, too, Karen. I haven't read them all & will look for this one. I love The Moon by Whale Light & though it is only partly about nature, her words about the animals in The Zookeeper's Wife are special. The picture brings a story immediately, doesn't it. And I love your own 'Dawn' that includes so many colors we all love, spectacular again those 'grays'. Thanks for all!
ReplyDeleteI embrace every single one of your dawn puns, Karen! Thanks for intro to Acherman's book. :)
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love when the universe all comes together with inspiration? I'm glad you posted your poem from This Photo here so more can see it. I love the look of it and how it goes from gray to all those lovely colors. So nicely done!
ReplyDeleteOoh! A new-to-me Ackerman book! I know better than to reserve it (too many already in the house TBR ahead of it), but I've added it to my list. And your poem! So perfect.
ReplyDeleteI don't know this book. Just put it on hold from the library. I have an unannounced project about crepuscular life. Will share more when I can.
ReplyDeleteIn my world, this is the universe calling -- all the DAWNS! I, too, love that in-between world. Often I will look back at photos I take of a sunrise and cannot recall right away if it was actually dawn or dusk. I don't think the trees care about that, either.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying your multiple dawn wonders… I constantly look at the negative space that the bare trees provide us with. And I'm happy to see your poem from This Photo Wants to be a Poem, here for I don't remember seeing it in this lovely diamond-like shape, which also mimics the skyline, it works well moving us through your poem, thanks Karen!
ReplyDeleteI love those scrumptious colors!
ReplyDeleteKaren, the dawn of a new day is here and I indulged in quiet time, reading PF posts. My little grandgirl stayed with us this weekend (rather unexpectedly) so time was not my own but fun was. I love how you made dawn a central figure in your post. Thanks for information on Ackerman and adding your poem to This Photo Wants To Be a Poem. I wanted to write about that but never had the time to do that. That is life and I like thinking about starting my day with dawn.
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