On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Munira
Sunrise, Sunset
When I was in the 7th grade, living in Amarillo, Texas, I watched my first sunrise. Or course, it wasn’t the first sunrise I’d seen, but it was the first one I really looked at. For some reason, I’d suddenly realized that I needed to see a sunrise from beginning to end so one spring day, I grabbed my sister, who was in the 4th grade, and we sneaked out of the house just when the sky began to lighten. There was an old shed in the back yard of the house we lived in. We were able to climb up on the roof from the fence, and we sat there, patiently waiting for the sun. The moment it broke the horizon was exhilarating. We knew we couldn’t look directly at it so we watched the colors of the clouds until they started to fade and the sun was fully risen. I wasn’t sure my sister would be able to sit still that long, but she did. As I recall, we didn’t say much to each other afterwards. We just quietly went back to the house and began our day.
I never forgot that experience. I knew we’d seen something both commonplace and magical. So what is the fascination with sunrises and sunsets besides the incredible colors? I think it comes from the fact that they are the perfect beautiful illustration of impermanence. We can see the changes happening. Every instant something shifts – the intensity of the color, the shape of the clouds, the reach of the glorious light until the first bright ray breaks the horizon at dawn or the last glow in the evening fades as the sun silently slips away. And the next day, it happens all over again.
This is a metaphor for our lives – the brightening, the shifting and the fading away. For some reason, at the age of 12, I had to witness it on that shed roof in Amarillo, Texas. I’ve seen many sunrises and sunsets since then, but that one stays with me. It was my initiation into a different way of seeing the world.
up at sunrise—
shifting the mind
to hopeful
morning run—
the ever receding
rainbow
morning on the lagoon—
sunrise
in the water
quiet sunrise—
the morning after
the laughter
what is given—
the sunrise
in my song
standing still—
the crescent moon floating
in clouds of sunrise
sundown by the bay—
three boats drifting
into the light
fading sunset—
my guitar struggles
through eventide
inside the glow—
sea sand sky
sunset everywhere
winter evening—
the sun
has the last word
I Would Love To Be There
Baud
Ooh, I feel like I’m chilling on top of a shed now.
eclare
Beautiful photos and poetry. To me a sunrise is a sign of survival, we made it through the darkness again.
JPL
Beautiful!
Jeffg166
Years ago a friend of mine was on the west coast. Up all night partying he suggested going to the beach to watch the sunrise. Everybody got into a van drove to a cliff overlooking the Pacific and waited for the sun to come up. It got lighter and lighter but no sun came up over the Pacific. Then he remembered it comes up over the Atlantic.
MomSense
Beautiful.
Baud
@Jeffg166:
Next time in Japan.
stinger
What wonderfully evocative and profound prose, photos, and poetry! Sunrise is my favorite time of day; then moonrise.
I don’t know Amarillo, but San Angelo was where I first saw a complete double rainbow. And the biggest sky to showcase it.
Nelle
Thank you. Nice to know others stop what they are doing for a sunrise or sunset. And understand how fleeting some of them are. Lovely photos.
frosty
What a great concept for OTR! Wonderful pictures and poetry too.
Trivia Man
Beautiful and evocative. Salt lake city has spectacular sunsets often, science stuff available on request. I agree the rapid changes are part of the excitement – even in todays short attention span world it is sufficiently awesome and fast to still resonate.
Both are nice but i like steve martins take: A sunrise is special and a magical event that bonds us to the earth and nature. While a sunset is a cheap and common spectacle.
JeanneT
Wow. Thank you for a wonderful start to my day.
Mike in Oly
So lovely.
SkyBluePink
Awe inspiring pictures and verses.
munira
@eclare: There is that for sure.
munira
@Jeffg166: That’s hilarious.
munira
Thank you everyone for your kind comments.
munira
@stinger: Yes, i think that big sky was the most part of living in Texas.
David Crisp
I never cared for Amarillo, but those West Texas sunrises and sunsets are unbeatable.
munira
@David Crisp: Didn’t care much for Amarillo either – that’s why the sky was the best part.
sab
I am so thick in the head. Saw the first lovely shot and thought Munira doesn’t sound very Quebecois(e). Mistakes like this are an endless source of entertainment for my spouse.
Lovely nym, lovely photos.
munira
@sab: I lived in Quebec for thirty years but I am originally from the US.
BigJimSlade
When I was younger, I thought sunrises were just sunsets that happened when you should be asleep :-)
Lovely pictures and words!
BigJimSlade
@Jeffg166: I was thinking of that when looking at the Crescent City picture. I know the coast curves around there, but I’m having trouble imaging where you can look east with some waves coming in. Not that I know CC very well, I think I’ve driven through once.
munira
@BigJimSlade: It was looking west. The clouds in the sunrise photo are reflecting the sunrise, not showing the actual sun coming up. The sunset photo from Crescent City is from the same beach, just a little farther south.
Jill
@munira: lovely work as usual, Munira. I am a fan of both sunrises and sunsets. Sunrises because it’s a new day and, in this era of hotter and hotter summers, sunsets because the cooling is coming and we’ve survived another day without boiling.
munira
@Jill: Good points.
BigJimSlade
@munira: Gotcha – thanks!
StringOnAStick
Absolutely lovely photos and prose, thank you!
Madeleine
Photos and haiku—both so beautiful. Thank you.
Manyakitty
Lovely 😍
pieceofpeace
Stunning photos, especially with the words to match the feeling of viewing these.
Thank you, and if you have more, please……….