the Beauty from the airship

not the finest camera or painter's stroke,
not the words of my pen,
not even my human eye in its finesse
can begin to tell the story of the beauty
which is opened in faintest shadows before me
on this sunset passing airship tonight.

south to north at 30,000 feet
i woke with the instinct to open the shade
and i was immediately invited into a world of splendor,
teasingly fleeting.

a solid carpet of pearl white gently settled clouds
provide a perspective unique to air travelers
and opposite to earth dwellers.
the wing beneath my viewing glass reaches its limb out to the receding sun,
calling for its embrace and reminding my eye that
an invisible wall separates my realm from the stunning world
to which i seek entrance.

at the skirt of the wing's arm and yet infinitely beyond
lies not the sun but the brightest fulcrum of its glory
focusing my gaze on the horizontal line
that is the cloud carpet's end and
the beginning of a night sky, so boldly calm
and penetrating in its shades of metallic blue
it reminds of a glistening black stallion
staring at its rider without even a flinch
in a moment of unspoken recognition between
horse and rider of the rarity of the steed's
power and grace...or perhaps
it reminds better of a woman,
one who speaks nothing at all
but says everything with her eyes that stare....and know.

this is the split backdrop (half cloud carpet and half metallic sky)
through which the sun paints its masterpiece.
i say 'through' and not 'on' because in this set the glory is truly coming
from some unseen place beyond the west and
penetrating into the airworld, filling all with the afterglow of its presence.

painting bottom to top:
simple grey in shadows
growing to shining whiteness
that becomes translucent as it starts to accept soft yellows
that turn to bright oranges
which later fade to glowing red embers.
as the carpet gives way to the sky goddess
the orange becomes dazzling and bright
which moves ever quickly into a bright blue
like a blue diamond catching the sun,
only fuller and deeper and more lasting.
the blues turn deeper and deeper to a midnight color
almost black but never quite there.

directly above the glory stands the perfectly round moon
shimmering in glowing black highlighted by
the white-hot thumbnail of the glory's reflection
along its bottom rim.

two single bright stars align equal distance from the moon
and each other
in a perfectly straight line that angles slightly to the left
as it reaches up away from the moon and the fading glory below,
like a brilliant diamond necklace gracing the neck of the
seductive night sky.

the beauty before me calls to me softly and loudly: "come."

and my soul is drawn to not just see but
to join,
to enter in,
to partake.


surely this is not a fantasy of useless musings
but an echo of reality,
a small glimpse of the shadow of Glory,
an invitation not just to dream of coming
but to actually come and partake in
the Ultimate Beauty, the Infinite Glory
from which all echos and shadows
which enter the present earthly realm
find their True Referent.
A Beauty which gives pleasure
for which we are made to enjoy.

a thirst that cannot possibly be quenched
by any of the echos or shadows which are before me now.

"look beyond, my soul, find the One for whom your longing craves."