FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] GCSP 2004

["Mike Spooner" <spoon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hope to see lots of folks next week!

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Grand Canyon Star Party 2004 - Anticipation

As twilight ebbs, shadows and shades rush to and fro; some cosmic wind
ruffling the jeweled tapestry above as it flutters toward a dimmed horizon.
Finally the night seems stabilized...but wait! The stillness is an illusion
as we stand upon our dusty mote and mark time shifting by the changing
stars. Our heavenly course is charted and set; such a path of wonders if
only we take time to make note. A prize to share; unboxed and unbridled in
its immensity but no less a gift for its vaporous touch. Bodies chained by
gravity - our minds free to soar the infinite. Stark and chill but also soft
and delicate as a whisper - its grandeur shouts upon our eyes. A sea of
cloudy seas, no other seeming purpose than to declare Glory, Glory.

Fading to dawn as the fiery fury burns light and life to this near world.
Still the ache of anticipation stirs a yearning for the setting sun and
night to fall again.


Thoreau had his Walden Pond. For me, I claim what small part here I can
experience. The impression it leaves upon me is impossible to articulate
with accuracy and my inadequacy becomes more apparent with each return. From
a chasm indescribable spans a universe endless - as if visions from a dream
have determined to replace reality. Still I strive to record my thoughts and
feelings with a language better suited to documentation than to emotional
expression - how does one write a teardrop? What word conveys the brush of
wind upon a cheek? Would an entire volume hold pages filled that could voice
the chirp of a cricket or a frog's throaty croak?

How then to relate a canyon so grand, an expanse so daunting?

I'm deprived of the means and am stoutly humbled by that limitation. To have
this knowledge and yet be so tongue-tied. Here I am but the observer -
blessed by views, cursed by lack of vernacular.


The stars shine out their welcome.



--Mike Spooner


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