Sunrise on Big Tancook Island NS

We spent five days on Big Tancook Island to celebrate

Gary's special birthday this year.  This is the 5 am view 

from our bedroom window, birthday sunrise.

The colours of the southeast cove 

and the morning sky warmed

and changed like melting crayons.

Our time on Big Tancook Island 

and our birthday celebrations 

were peaceful, full of delight

and laughter.

Big Tancook Island is the ultimate get-away, 

providing opportunities to shed the unnecessary

burdens of life and to simply be,

fully alive, and aware of the natural world.

Gary says it made a birthday he will never forget.

As I Gather my Clothes for the Day

As I Gather my Clothes for the Day

I am caught at the window

by a slant of light,

by these oak leaves turning to gold.

The sunrise is singing the morning awake

with songs that melt on my skin

and underneath their spreading spell,

I breathe the buttery light

and dream of becoming the same,

dressed in mist and leaves and dew.

I stand long and long at the window

breathing the dazzling day.

As the skin of my life loosens,

I spark and ignite, burn,

and flow shimmering

into this welcoming light.

 

Photo and poem are ©copyright 2011-2013 Carol Steel.

Winter Sunrise

Winter Sunrise

What if the dark
and the white
of a winter morning
stand stark
against the pink-gold feast
of a sunrise sky?

And what if the sun
has the same melting sheen
as the butter
soaking into
my hot orange
and cranberry scones?

Then that is enough;
enough to spread
glory
all over my day.

Words and photos are copyright Carol Steel.

Sunrise

SUNRISE

...and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(New and Selected Poems, Volume I)

This photo is mine.