This week's sunrises

I enjoy rising early. Quiet. Clarity. For me, ideas flow with more fluidity early in the morning, and are best experienced with a cup of hot tea and some quiet music.

Jimmy Buffett says that you know you're getting older when you get up when you used to go to bed.

Hopefully older and wiser.

Another benefit of rising early is being able to watch the sunrise. This week in central Ohio has provided some of breath-taking quality.

From Longfellow's Sunrise on the Hills . . .

I stood upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch
Was glorious with the sun's returning march,
And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.
The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light,
They gathered mid-way round the wooded height,
And, in their fading glory, shone
Like hosts in battle overthrown.
As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance.
Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance,
And rocking on the cliff was left
The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft.
The veil of cloud was lifted, and below
Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow
Was darkened by the forest's shade,
Or glistened in the white cascade;
Where upward, in the mellow blush of day,
The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way.