dawn

As dawn approaches . . .

lillian12 Comments

I sit gazing.
The world around me asleep
except for occasional gulls flying overhead.
Stillness surrounds me
waiting for the sun to rise.
This ocean, the morning before,
roiled in protest to darkness disappearing.
Today it lies calm, smooth as glass.
Two sailboats sit atop the water
their hulls mirrored reflections,
motionless, tranquil,
silent in the absence of wind.

Skies stained
with thin veneer of pastel pink
await the dawn.
As sun’s sliver stealthily appears,
skies rouge in excited anticipation.
Sliver grows to arc, to half-circle, to orb,
and I sigh.
Thankful for another day.

Photos taken yesterday morning from our deck in Provincetown on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.

Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today is Open Link Night and writers are invited to post any poem of their choosing. Bjorn, our pub tender today, also provides an optional prompt you may choose to use.

ALL are invited to dVerse LIVE on Saturday, September September 14th from 10 to 11 AM New York Time. The link to join with audio and video is embedded here. Come and read one of your poems aloud OR come to just sit in and enjoy! The more the merrier!

Morning’s Promise

lillian7 Comments

Provincetown’s prequel to dawn.
Nature’s sky palette,
her brush strokes divine.
Palest of pastel pink ribbons
and cotton ball fluffs,
ombre into muted blues and greys.
Profound quiet punctuated
by gentle waves lapping shore.
Day awakens as I gaze
mesmerized by her calm.
Her promise, a lovely day.


Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today Lisa gives us three options as prompts for our poems. I chose the second: to write of an experience, preferably in the first person, where we’ve asked for a sign of something to come. Here in our beloved Provincetown for two weeks, I awaken each morning to watch the skies, wondering if we will have a clear, cloudy, or stormy day. No matter the weather, Ptown is always beautiful.

Photos taken this morning from our deck – those magical moments before sunrise. And it has indeed, been a beautiful day.

Awaiting the Dawn

lillian47 Comments

I sit in darkness,
blanket-wrapped against damp chill.
Squawking gulls pierce my quiet,
spar over fish carcass washed ashore.
Dawn will present herself shortly,
streak sky angry crimson-orange
or smudge it gently in soft puffs of pastel pink.
How will she start my day?


Written for Quadrille Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today I’m hosting and ask writers to include the word “present” or a form of the word, in the body of their quadrille, a poem of exactly 44 words sans title.

Photo taken at dawn in Cape Cod’s Provincetown some years ago. We treasure our annual two-week visit to Ptown. I often wrap up in a blanket on the deck, in that chilly dark time before the sun rises, hold a coffee cup in my hands to stay warm, and watch the day dawn over the ocean.

Provincetown Aubade

lillian7 Comments

I stand at water’s edge
on the precipice of new day
as darkness surrounds me.
Cold damp salted air clings
and coats my upper lip.

Cinnamon colored strips
jut their way through ebony sky.
Monotone scrim begins to fluctuate
as dark clouds differentiate themselves,
shades of grey against paling black.

There, there in front of me
hints of red-orange light.
Shards of yellow tinted crimson
elongate, stretch, and slowly shift
until my chill is forgotten.

Glorious golden orb begins to rise.
Sole cormorant on jetty stone
shadowed now in rising dawn,
my only company as I smile.
Today is indeed, a new day.


Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets and for NAPOWRIMO, Day 8.

Laura is hosting dVerse and shares with us the background and meaning of aubade. It is a serenade to dawn. She asks us to write a melodious poem evoking day break and using either the word “morning” or “aubade” in our title.

Photo is from one of our annual two-week stays in Provincetown, at the very tip of Cape Cod, where dawn never ceases to amaze.