Tuesday, July 13, 2010

like a changing dream


But then the sunset smiled,
Smiled once and turned toward dark,
Above the distant, wavering line of trees that filed
Along the horizon's edge;
Like hooded monks that hark
Through evening air
The call to prayer;--
Smiled once, and faded slow, slow, slow away;
When, like a changing dream, the long cloud-wedge,
Brown-gray,
Grew saffron underneath, and ere I knew,
The interspace, green-blue--
The whole, illimitable, western, skyey shore,
The tender, human, silent sunset smiled once more.

--Richard Watson Gilder

6 comments:

Judy Williams said...

You should change your blog title to South Pas and Poetry!! How wonderful. I like the crosswalk's black and white rectangles. The beautiful sky, and the sun perfectly juxtaposed between the red and green signals!! This is awesome.

Mister Earl said...

Love those colors!

Judy: Speaking of Joyce Kilmer being a man, the other day I was reading about Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark Cards, also a man.

Anonymous said...

that last line packs a punch -- and so does the picture.

WV: Bitho. If that's not a word, it should be.

Anonymous said...

stunning.

Laurie Allee said...

Hi everyone,

Isn't this poem wonderful? I was unfamiliar with Richard Watson Gilder until stumbling across this piece in an anthology. I had just read it the other day and was thinking about the "tender, human, silent sunset" when I stopped to wait for the train to pass on Monterey. I was lucky to capture the shot I wanted before the street light changed -- or the sunlight dipped to far to compose so nicely between the streetlights...

I've had major writers block lately, but poems always fill the gaps, don't they?

Until tomorrow...

Laurie Allee said...

Oh, and thank you so much for the kind words.