Firelight - a reading (on YouTube)
We keep the blinds mostly drawn in the dining room at night, just high enough for the cats to sit in the front window and look out. We lower them at dusk just enough to block the streetlight on the corner and the other lights our neighbor's burn throughout the night.
When I awoke this morning, the sun was still low and near the horizon. There was a haze to the east which was lit up in the softest shade of pink, like a rose petal fog that partially obscured the dawn. The sun slanting through the gap in the front window was flame orange, like you only see at dawn or dusk. It struck the legs of our furniture and lit them up as though drawing the fire hidden within the wood. The oak of the barstools glowed like amber beneath a polished finish, the cherry wood in the living room more like garnets. All from a narrow beam of light, maybe a foot high, walking its way from the back of the living room toward the base of the front window as each minute passed.
Ten minutes later, all of it was gone, the haze, the light, the fire. One day soon, it will no longer reappear. Some mornings it pays to rise with the first light of dawn.
When I awoke this morning, the sun was still low and near the horizon. There was a haze to the east which was lit up in the softest shade of pink, like a rose petal fog that partially obscured the dawn. The sun slanting through the gap in the front window was flame orange, like you only see at dawn or dusk. It struck the legs of our furniture and lit them up as though drawing the fire hidden within the wood. The oak of the barstools glowed like amber beneath a polished finish, the cherry wood in the living room more like garnets. All from a narrow beam of light, maybe a foot high, walking its way from the back of the living room toward the base of the front window as each minute passed.
Ten minutes later, all of it was gone, the haze, the light, the fire. One day soon, it will no longer reappear. Some mornings it pays to rise with the first light of dawn.
© 2011 Edward P. Morgan III
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ReplyDeleteNotes and asides:
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(Posted on 8/7/11 for the 4th anniversary of Noddfa Imaginings).
This was the first message sent out under the Imaginings banner. I'm not sure how it didn't get posted to the blog when we first set it up. Perhaps I thought it wasn't good enough at the time. I've modified the first and last paragraphs some from what was first sent out.
The only comment I had at the time was, "A short thought to share with you this morning. I don't intend to send something every day, or even every week necessarily, but this morning's light caught my eye."
That light still catches my eye as it finds the same wood for a brief time around the summer solstice. It doesn't last long, If I'm not awake or paying attention, I miss it. Like the light streaming down the hall for a few minutes in the afternoon or entering the windows on the north side of the house or striking the glass ball in the upper corner of the living room, in a week or two, it will disappear entirely for the remainder of the year.
I love noting the unique paterns and interactions of light and darkness in the house and yard throughout the year. It gives me a sense of being grounded in a particular place and time no matter what other distractions are going on around me.
Picture notes:
ReplyDeleteThis is as close as we could come to capturing how the light sometimes draws out the fire from the wood of our furniture. Karen took this picture one evening in May, 2009. As with the morning light, near dusks the sun lights up the bureau in our bedroom. She increased the sharpness and the contrast to bring out the fire a bit more.
I cant even believe how much I loved this book. I have not had a book keep me up until dawn for a while but this book did it! I just loved it. Everything about it. Sophie Jordan has written a young adult book that is exciting, empowering, and enticing! The reader cant help but fall head over heals for Will (the sexy hunter) and empathize with Jacinda's situation.
ReplyDelete