Monday, December 3, 2007

Light

I miss daylight. And sunsets. Especially the sunsets.

Eight years ago when Ken and I first moved here it was difficult for us to find much to like about Denver, but the one thing that continually amazed me were the sunsets. Having grown up in Idaho I thought I'd seen some pretty spectacular evening skies, but none has compared to those I've seen here, and each time I hear the chorus of John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" I have to sigh and agree.

Colorado Rocky Mountain high.
I've seen it raining fire from the sky.
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby,
Rocky Mountain high, Colorado.

I worked late tonight but somehow managed to slip outside just as the sun was setting and catch a few shots on my cell phone.






The sun was caught between the clouds and the mountains and quickly, even as I was fumbling to take the pictures, it changed from blue and gold to crimson and everything that stood against it became the blackest of silhouettes.




And then it seemed that December said a sweet goodbye to Autumn by placing the most brilliant leaf in the sky.


I wish I could've been in the park with Duncan. I wish I could've stopped and marveled at it and then turned my eye in his direction, just in time to see his color change, became redder, but somehow softer, more touchable. I would've bent down and hugged him, as I often do, but in that light it would've been even more wonderful.

By the time I got home it was dark but still very warm. We climbed the top of the Columbine Memorial to look down on Denver spread out all around us. This is what we do on warm nights. The sound of the traffic faded away and I laid down on the stone bench and looked up at the orange clouds, which weren't moving so much as mingling. Duncan jumped up and curled around my shoulders. He placed his paw on my chest and licked the top of my head as he likes to do when we settle down for the night. I closed my eyes and thought that I could fall asleep only to wake up later and wonder where I was; perhaps I'd imagine I was flying, looking down on a million glowing cities. It would've been strange, but with my dog curled up, almost on top of me, it would've been an exquisite dream from which to wake.

2 comments:

Solomon said...

Those shots are fantastic quality. What phone do you use?

Curt Rogers said...

I have to tell you, I was pretty surprised at how they turned out. I use an LG-VX8600.

Thanks for commenting!