Chasing The Day
As the day fades, we chase the sun to the last corner of the house where it can still be found. In the guest bedroom, there is a pool of sunlight on the butterfly-patterned bedspread. The cat and I recline there. The window is open wide, and the fresh air is comfortable, delicious. It is a second-story room that places us at eye level with the midsection of a giant redwood tree.
While I read an article about weird fiction, a woman in one of the adjacent yards laughs suddenly, a wildly sincere laugh. I smile. Birds chirp and small dogs bark. A box fan on the floor makes a rattling sound. I can hear the stream of traffic whooshing along the nearest highway. Everyone else in the house is asleep, but the cat and I wait for the summer sun to set.
Looking down into the yard, I see the bowing stalks of hollyhock bobbing in the breeze. I remember the way the tree tops seemed to be crawling over each other this morning, undulating in the currents of air. I glance at them now. They are far less moved, swaying only slightly. All at once, the golden hour passes. The sun slips rapidly away from us, sinking below the tree line. We’re left in shadow.
Heeeeeeey, please heart this post so more people can discover the unique flavor of Jellied Gold! Then, tell me what niche you think this type of writing falls into because I honestly don’t know.
Hi Peyton
Good morning from Australia. Well, 12 minutes of morning remains..... the day is vapourising around me, but I'm having a relaxed time reading and thinking and I've ended up here.
Thankyou for reading my Whangaumu Bay. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was about to reply to your comment over on my own Substack and suggest that you should write some more yourself, and then I checked in here, and I find that you already have. So.....
You ask of the reader:
"Heeeeeeey, please heart this post so more people can discover the unique flavor of Jellied Gold! Then, tell me what niche you think this type of writing falls into because I honestly don’t know."
Well - I have hearted it, because I do like it, and now I will suggest a "niche" because that's what you request - but I would suggest, as well, that the niche doesn't matter. What matters is that you write what you feel like writing, and that it is true to you. I say this, because it's a lesson I have learned myself, over many years, and I now feel free to cross and to blend genres; poetry, prose, prose poetry, short fiction, memoir, photography... These days, I don't usually know what I'm going to write, until I do it. (My recent "War Crimes" poem/post is a rare exception. I knew what I wanted to write. It was just very painful to do so).
But back to you...
For me, I would call your Post a Meditation, or an exercise in Mindfulness. It's just you (and the cat) experiencing what is around you - the warmth, the last of the light, the sights and sounds connecting you with both humanity and the natural world. It's about the nature of existence, of consciousness, of living in the endlessly evolving moment - that bubble of "now" within which we are aware, and self aware.
Meditation writings have a long and rich history, in prose and in poetry....
Best Wishes from Australia - Dave :)