Thursday, September 8, 2011

Sunsets Eternal

 "This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." 
John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

 Forever followed, never reached, what is there more alluring than the spectacle of a setting sun perpetually leading the way over the western horizon?  Having grown up in the land of the big sky, Kansas, where stunning sunsets are not rare, I discover in my adult life in Georgia, where they are,  that I am easily beguiled by the prospect of an inspiring sunset.  While I've come to depend on the soothing effect of the trees of Atlanta, I will ever be drawn to that mysterious evening mix of cloud and light, never the same in hue or contour.  So it is that when I go to a beautiful place on a writing retreat, I make an effort to get to a place of quietude by sunset time.  The most beautiful ones defy the camera.  Last October, one memorable sun sat right down on the end of a long ribbon of highway I was traveling and filled up my windshield.  My throat still catches at the memory of it. Below are a few recent captures in San Francisco, Gulf Breeze, FL, Lake Junaluska, SC,  Wilmington Island, GA.   Nothing like a good sunset to stoke an aspiring writer for another chapter.  dkm 










7 comments:

Lefki said...

These photos are absolutely breath-taking!

Jane Robertson said...

Now this feels like a moment when words are utterly insufficient. Anything I use to describe your photos is going to be kind of hackneyed. They are truly glorious. My favourite, I think, the second to last one where the sky looks like stretched fabric and the gradations of colour are deep and endless.

I love the way you describe yourself as a Kansas girl forever on the lookout for a beautiful sunset! How the land becomes a part of us...

dkm said...

Thanks to both of you---and yes---the land---and how we grow from it :-)

Crosby Kenyon said...

Sunsets certainly do it. So do sunrises.

Ellen said...

ahhhhhhhhh

Patricia Lichen said...

This reminded me of something I haven't thought of in a long time. When I was a kid, I frequently wished for a book that would have photos of every sunset that had ever happened. I did know this would be a big book (tho I had no grasp of just HOW IMPOSSIBLY BIG such a thing would be!) and I also hadn't grasped the idea of the eternal sunset/rise the world over. I guess I was really just thinking of the view of the sun setting from my house in Ohio...

dkm said...

You should take on this project, Patricia! It could become a lifetime pursuit for a skilled photographer :-)---to capture the most beautiful sunsets the world over.

And yes to John Muir's twist on the sun eternally disappearing over the edge of the globe---I love thinking of it---never to be reached---always to be approached----