Pure Air (readings of nature and life)

Word-painting the sights and sounds of ephemeral scenes. Three sunsets in three different locales.

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“I know that our bodies where created to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. There is not a fragment in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself.” John Muir. From: ‘A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf’. 1916

PART 1 – COASTAL PROMONTORY

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Twilight lastly wanes.
Darkness, like a window
Shade, slowly descends
upon the surroundings…

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Within moments a pall
of mist has coalesced; a
moist residue feathering
‘round about…

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Almost imperceptibly;

the sounds of Gulls and
Sandpipers drift into the distance…

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Mingled with a shifting of
ocean breezes, goose-bumps move
like tiny wheels, in waves of trembling,

up and down the spine…

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Squinting eyes observe
a diaphanous mist forming halos
‘round the shifting coruscation of
distant streetlights…

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Steady, in the northernmost parts,
the moon rises from behind a transom
of steep ridges onto a glistening inlet…

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With slivers of serpentine
Incandescence; moonlight hastens
upon the footpath in a wash of
pallid vividness…

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We watch, in cooling night air,
as the lesser light frolics on the
Ocean’s surface in ashen flames…

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From the imbiber’s pantheon,
across the boulevard, laughter’s cacophony
echoes fitfully across sand and water…

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Slowly, the nomadic path of
nighttime envelopes both of us in a
cloak of darkened cerulean hues…

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PART 2 – LAGUNA MEADOWS

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Setting sun extends
shadow fingers across
the vast meadows…

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Broadening shadows blanket

drought-parched grasses

in a dimming shroud…

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Balanced in thirds
and sevenths, twilight’s
Heart tones sketch the day’s
memories in pallid brushstrokes…

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Scrub-jay, Quail, Raven, Sparrow, Chickadee,

and Mud-hen sing exuberantly, across the lake,

in a chorus of salient transition…

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These nocturnal cantatas
wrap the soul in a chorus of
elevated harmony…

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Remembering sunlight’s warmth;

soaring affections succumb to

the panoptic chill of eventide…

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With the threshold crossed,
two spirits spread their wings
and take flight into the radiance
of an unsullied moon…

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PART 3 – ACTIVITY ABOARD THE BARQUE – SUNSET

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Across far-flung horizons –
below the suns apex – hues
of late afternoon commingle with

the easily swayed aspects of moments…

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Burdened from rising pressures,
surface water furrows like wrinkled
old fruit, as storm-clouds form west
along the Northern Shorelines…

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Aboard the wooden Barque:

passenger’s rollick on the leeward deck

where beamish stewards serve snacks, and
budding libertines eyeball possibilities…

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The measured clicking of heels echo

near the fo’c’sle where eager faces float socially;

and where, in shifting breezes, the long flaxen

hair of youth hover’s naturally…

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A resonance of laughter widens
‘round long-stemmed flutes; amber
liquid splashing drops along rounded
glass edges smudged with lipstick and spit…

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The eyes and ears draw all these

darting fragments (of sight and sound)

into the mind, so the adventurous soul can  

paint with words in subtle or bold images…

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Time takes us there,
where light and dark commingle,
where hope and fact ignite the flames
of understanding, and where each
breath is present and past…

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Continually morphing, in light and shadow,
the line of night traverses the rounded surface.
Slowly, in fluid motion, the once resplendent sun
gradually dips down into another time of respite…

 

© richard lloyd cederberg

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BIOGRAPHY

Richard is the progeny of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants. He was born in Chicago Illinois. Richard began his journey into the arts at age six. For twelve years he played classical trumpet. The British incursion of music, however, influenced him to put down the trumpet and take-up acoustic and electric guitar, and, to write songs and lyrics. He toured professionally for ten years. In 1995 Richard was privileged to design and build his own Midi-centered Recording Studio ~ Taylor & Grace ~ where he worked diligently until 2002. During that time he composed, and multi-track recorded, over 500 compositions and has two CD’s (‘WHAT LOVE HAS DONE’ and ‘THE PATH’) to his personal credit.
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Richard’s interest in writing continues. His poetic invention is integrative and employs various elements: nature, history, relationships (past and present), parlance, alliteration, metaphor, characterization, spirituality, faith, eschatology, art, and subtext. Avoiding the middle-road; he enjoys the challenge of poetic stylization: Rhythmical, Poetic/Prose, Triolets, Syllable formats, Story-Poems, Freeform, Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, and Acrostic. Richard’s work has been (and is) featured in a wide variety of anthologies, compendiums, and e-zines including: Poetry Life and Times, Artvilla, Motherbird, and The Path. Richard was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.
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Books include: 1. A MONUMENTAL JOURNEY… 2. IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST TRIBE… 3. THE UNDERGROUND RIVER… 4. BEYOND UNDERSTANDING. The Monumental Journey Series is a confluence of adventure, mystery,  and historical fiction. A new adventure/thriller, BETWEEN THE CRACKS has been published. Also, a new eschatological drama – AFTER WE WERE HUMAN – is being written. Follow the lives of several friends as a race of ageless multi-dimensional humans comes back to Earth with their Creator to rule and reign for 1000 years.