Dear Editor:
Our valley skies day and night I still watch and delight in even though I am taking a break from writing the astronomy column for you readers. Bright Jupiter to the low west catches my eye, pale Saturn intrigues down the valley, the Milky Way soars overhead with Cygnus and Vega, and the moon glides towards its rendezvous in August with the sun and a grand eclipse.
Days and evenings too our valley skies are well worth a glance even if you or I have busy schedules. An intricate dance of whispy cirrus clouds always catch my eye. Sunset paints clouds and mountain peaks with a glow that our hearts know.
And, sometimes, my eye reaches up toward just some simple patch of white among many, and the poet in me (I am writing towards a reading at Pynelogs sometime this autumn, watch the Pioneer for that) finds special connections with what’s up there and down here…
“Gentle Cloud”
I let a cloud drift soft into my hand
And asked it what it was beyond just water in the sky?
Replied it said, oh I am sea that’s far away,
The rain that feeds your forests ‘round,
That laughs and sparkles in your streams,
The lake you’ve also touched
Where you even whispered a hello,
And then, your mighty river I return by to the sea.
I heard you call hello again, and so I came a while
To drift up here and lift your thought,
Thanks for reaching up to me oh yes –
Thank you for your soft caress
Brian Fenerty
