"Chasing Sunsets"

Poem of the Day, Wednesday, November 8, 2023

"Chasing Sunsets"

There is a powerful extravagance in sunsets.
Some linger longer, spilling deep gold,
orange, and black rays and spreading stunningly
across the western highline, stretching its exquisiteness,
hoping, just hoping, the earth will stop
for a few more seconds so they can spread
their resplendent colors like a giant peacock
with a horizon for wings, waiting for an encore.

Other sunsets are bold for a blink of an eye,
and you must be there to capture
their beauty and magnificence.
Often, I sit and wait for them,
so they do not sneak upon me
like my brothers used to
after doing late chores in the winter.

At dusk, the sun glides gracefully across the sky,
disappearing surreptitiously behind globs
of dark gray clouds, a few wispy white ones,
and then dropping precipitously, lower and lower,
perhaps a bit reticent, unpretentious at first.

Yet just before it slouches behind the mountain
and beyond the horizon, it flashes,
radiant deep oranges, yellows, blacks,
browns, and other mixtures of radiant colors,
cascading across the horizon,
embellishing everything around it
and casting a view of splendor
on another stage on the east mountains.

For a few brief moments, we bask 

in its glory and momentous beauty,

and then, it is gone, leaving a few tailings
of grandeur and grandness to dally just bit
longer to entice us to stay each evening
when it will return again and shower us
with another majestic array of magnificence!