Sunday, November 16, 2008

I want to fly into the Colorado sunset

As my family was driving home from a church group fellowship, I saw the clouds lit up by the sun for the zillionth time in my life, but this time it really struck me as something to actually write about. This Colorado sunset was like none I have ever seen before. The sight was much too beautiful to refrain from sharing.

So, we were driving up a steep hill, and when we got to the top, I could see the far horizon all the way around us. To the west loomed the mountains, shining with multiple colors from the clouds' reflection. It seemed like we could see every shadow on the slopes. The underside of the cloud was golden and jagged against the deep blue of the sky. As the cloud billowed up in countless layers, it mingled into purple and then blue. To the north side of the cloud, the blue shifted quite suddenly into a dark gray that seemed very grim and foreboding in comparison to the brighter colors.

As I turned around, I could see wisps of wanna-be clouds glowing with a pinkish hue all the way around--north, south and east. The deep pink of the long, slender cloud above the eastern plains was almost as bright as the gold, purple and blue on the mountain side, even though this one could hardly be called a "cloud" in comparison to the vastness of the western cloud bank.

The mountains eventually turned into silhouettes against the sky as the sun shone from behind them. The "Sleeping Giant" (as we call it) dozed right ahead of us, and Pike's Peak loomed a little more to the south. In that moment I wanted to leap out of the Subaru onto my imaginary dragon and wing up into the billows. I could just feel the moisture of the clouds around my face and the adrenaline rush of the dragon's flight through a rainbow of color . . .

Okay, I might be getting a little carried away, but the scene in my mind was so inspirational that I meant at first to write a poem about it (and that's a pretty amazing feeling for me). When it came to actually sitting down with my fingers poised above the keyboard, I decided that prose is really the best for me. I have written some poetry which might actually make it onto my blog someday. Then I'll need feedback from someone who WRITES poetry for real.

1 comment:

Paulette Harris said...

Good Morning and a Blessed Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones. I ran across you on my blog site. I am honored that you read it. I am way behind but will post this morning. Three of our computers crashed all at once as I was attempting to do some submitting and write on my blog! I got a new one and it crashed the next day. I do love Colorado as well. I grew up around Craig and Steamboat Springs. Ahhh if I only knew then about the land...!
Do you know about the lostgenre group of people. It seems like you enjoy sci-fi writing too. Please email me at coloradopolly@yahoo.com and I'll share more if you would like to join up with us there at that site.
Hugs,
Paulette Harris
www.pauletteharris.biz