Meditation #5 -- the city at night
There is no light but the lights of the city.
The cold and blackness encroach on our turf, our city, the streets where we walk with confidence in daylight.
But our city lights give assurance that all is well, that for one more night at least, all is functioning and our dominion is secure.
The darkness makes every light a jewel, every color an iridescence, every road twinned rivers of red and white. The human city shimmers, coruscates, bewitches. It is beauty and it is power and it is ours.
Except above.....
I look upward. Into the dark. Outward.
Silently the city lights shout Mankind's defiance into the unending blackness beyond the world.
(And perhaps, on the far side of the dark, others look out toward us and dream? Perhaps they have their own cities, their own lights, their own pride?)
No fear.
I am of the race that tamed the dark.
Long past are the days when our kind trembled for the wolves and marauders at night, or for the gods with which they peopled the emptiness above.
The dark evokes awe, not for itself, but for our triumph over it.
The world is turning. Soon comes the Sun, and the mundane.
posted by Infidel753 at 3:07 AM
4 Comments:
I was just stopping by and passing through some of the links you had. This piece is pretty good, as far as being sort of poetic. I like the day and night both, because without one, it would be hard to appreciate the other to the fullest ... yep, I even get out in that sun daily, that's why in my pictures I look pale in the winter and darker in the summer. But yes! I absolutely love the night, it is special in it's own way. Many times in the wee hours of the night morning, I just get out and cruise the Metroplex, there are some awesome views here cruising the freeways, especially in the southern sector of Dallas (Oak Cliff/ Mountain Creek Lake) with the hills and west Fort Worth, and the Possum Kingdom Lake cliffs and such, and the LBJ/ North Central Expwy/ Stemmons Corridor freewayz in Dallas ... the lights are an awesome view. I also love out in west Texas at night, I would get out in the desert, pull the car over, lay on the hood of the car looking up at the stars, and fire up a joint (marijuana), which are more visible and brilliant out there, because there is no city lights to counter the view ... it is just so massive clusters of stars. Another favourite of mine for night cruising would be in LA, especially the northern part of LA County all up through to Ventura (unfortunately on fire as I write this), the 101, 110, 134 freeways, Hollywood Hills, etc ... it's like being on a roller coaster in the night, and all these lights in the Hills are swirling around you, plus the lights of LA looking into that basin area are awesome! Enough from me ... later Infidel ....
Here Infidel ... a link I wanted to give you from America's City of Lights (LA), with a nice little soundtrack too ... enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6o2fO_m2iw
Beautiful, evocative, interesting juxtaposition -- never really focused on the dark (sky) as illuminating and, by contrast, the light sky as obscuring.
Thomas: Daytime already belongs to us -- nighttime is something we had to take.
I know what you mean about how bright the stars are where there are no city lights. I still remember seeing this from the Jordanian desert almost 40 years ago (no clouds there, either).
The video was cool, thanks.
Hackwhacker: Thank you. It's not that the day is exactly obscuring, but it's mundane. Everything looks different at night, more intense.
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