Desert Dreams
Sunrise in Twentynine Palms, California
In the dreams that lie between sleep and wake
the hazy memories of somewhere dance
in golden light and warm embrace
On the first morning at a cottage just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, as the sunrise started to adorn the sky with light and color, I stumbled outside with my camera, barely awake, with only the toes of my feet stuffed into my shoes. After a long day of travel the previous day and a restless night, I was not exactly bouncing out the door with great enthusiasm. I stood on the porch of the cottage, watching the sky turn orange through the silhouettes of the palm trees that lined the edge of the driveway. I lazily took a few shots from there (one of those images is in the first comment below) as my body tried to convince me it really wanted to be sleeping.
My mind however, was intrigued by the path leading out between the palm trees to a low wall with a set of stairs climbing up it; I wondered what the view was like from the top of the wall. So I convinced myself to put my shoes fully on and wander out beyond the trees. I reached the wall and while briefly pondering the "why" of its existence, climbed the half dozen steps to the top of it. From that vantage point, the view opened to a nearly treeless landscape of desert, mountains, and a vast expanse of sky. I stood there for awhile, listening to the silence, watching the colors wash over the land and saturate the sky, until the sun crested the hills and they vanished into its heat and light.
I then returned to the cottage and went back to sleep, awakening awhile later to wonder if I had dreamed the sunrise. Fortunately my camera informed me that I had not :-)
Desert Dreams
Sunrise in Twentynine Palms, California
In the dreams that lie between sleep and wake
the hazy memories of somewhere dance
in golden light and warm embrace
On the first morning at a cottage just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, as the sunrise started to adorn the sky with light and color, I stumbled outside with my camera, barely awake, with only the toes of my feet stuffed into my shoes. After a long day of travel the previous day and a restless night, I was not exactly bouncing out the door with great enthusiasm. I stood on the porch of the cottage, watching the sky turn orange through the silhouettes of the palm trees that lined the edge of the driveway. I lazily took a few shots from there (one of those images is in the first comment below) as my body tried to convince me it really wanted to be sleeping.
My mind however, was intrigued by the path leading out between the palm trees to a low wall with a set of stairs climbing up it; I wondered what the view was like from the top of the wall. So I convinced myself to put my shoes fully on and wander out beyond the trees. I reached the wall and while briefly pondering the "why" of its existence, climbed the half dozen steps to the top of it. From that vantage point, the view opened to a nearly treeless landscape of desert, mountains, and a vast expanse of sky. I stood there for awhile, listening to the silence, watching the colors wash over the land and saturate the sky, until the sun crested the hills and they vanished into its heat and light.
I then returned to the cottage and went back to sleep, awakening awhile later to wonder if I had dreamed the sunrise. Fortunately my camera informed me that I had not :-)