Photo & Poem: When the Sunset is Through With Me

August 5, 2019 / Anna Blake / 20 Comments

 

The sunset plays me. In the heat of the day,
colors are flattened by glare and searchlight
bluntness, work taken on, tasks finished.
But when the sunset looks at me sideways,

flirting through the clouds, changing expression
in each instant, I come stumbling out on the
porch, fumbling with my glasses, my camera,
knowing before I’m focused that the sky is

teasing me. It’ll look small in the viewfinder,
flat in the photo, but scurry, I do, because I
must keep the color. To the west, such sweet
pastel tones, his whispering conversation thrills

each prairie grass, the scars on my skin go smooth,
as feather arm-hairs lift, but I sense something
bearing down fast behind me. Pulling my eyes
from the syrupy horizon back to the east,

dominating as loud and brash as a marching band,
purple and orange, trumpets and drums, slash
the sky. Devoured by color in light; when the
sunset is through with me, there will be nothing left.

…

Anna Blake at Infinity Farm

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Anna Blake

20 thoughts on “Photo & Poem: When the Sunset is Through With Me”

  1. Just read this on another blog (equine) that I follow – have had no experience with donkeys myself but I thought you, Anna, and others here would like this. Kind of warms the “cockles” of my heart (old expression of my grandmother).

    Why We Keep a Donkey
    – author unknown
    When your day seems out of balance
    And so many things go wrong
    When people fight around you
    And the day drags on and on
    When parents act like children
    And everything goes wonky
    Go out into the pasture
    Wrap your arms around your donkey.
    His gentle breath enfolds you
    He watches with those eyes
    He does not have his PHD
    but he is oh-so-wise!
    His head rests on your shoulder
    You hold him very tight
    He puts your world in balance
    And makes it seem all right.
    Your tears, they soon stop flowing
    The tension now has eased
    The stress it has been lifted
    You are quietly at peace.
    So when you need respite
    From the turmoil in your day
    The best therapy ever
    Is out there eating hay!

    Reply

  4. Love, love, LOVE this one! Oh how many times I’ve watched the colors change,knowing that I’d never get my iPad or phone in time to catch the glory I’m seeing – exactly then… and then… and then…

    Reply

  5. We here on the East Coast are dismayed at the disappearing sunset each day but it is heartening to know worthy eyes like yours catch and caress it when your time comes…For us and our vantage point, it is the rise in the cool of the morning that stirs my heart.

    Reply

  6. OH! One of the things I miss the most about living on our ranch in New Mexico is….the sunsets. Almost Every. Single. Day boasted outrageous color and texture, sometimes even through the tail end of a snow storm. And yes, turn your back on that show and see the one from the east! Oh my goodness!

    The Nikon D-50 was always nearby. Then the cell phone.

    Now we are gone but the pictures I’ve saved in my phone, my computer and my head will always comfort me and amaze me at the power of nature.

    Thanks for sharing your sky’s beauty. Truly gorgeous.

    Reply

  7. I feel your sentiment re the sunsets. Last week it was a short shower of rain, five separate rainbows, almost lost before I’d made it outside with the camera.

    I’m rather into the Nordic Runes. Sowelu is for Wholeness, Life Forces, The Sun’s Energy, and comes with a prayer in its wisdom:-

    The Gayatri

    You, who are the source of all power,
    Whose rays illuminate the whole world
    Illuminate also my heart
    So that it too can do your work.

    I repeat this in my mind every day we have sun. If, perchance, I was out on a horse at sunset, I might have been spotted astride, barebacked, horse grazing, arms high above me, stretched in sun-worship.

    Sunset at sunrise, thanks Anna, beautiful.

    Reply

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