No sooner than I returned from a rejuvenating vacation on the Oregon coast, where I had taken a series of sunset photos, a sonnet called “Sunset; a sonnet” arrived in my inbox. I have signed up to receive the new sonnets by poet/songwriter Malcolm Guite. You may recall that many pieces of my work have been inspired by the man and his writings.

The first two of the Sunset Series are called “Dying Splendour One and Two”.  Newer paintings are “Looking West” and Treading the Dawn”. All of the paintings in the series have actual handwriting from the sonnet by Malcolm Guite embedded in the artwork.

We’re looking west to where our setting sun
Already out of sight, looks back at us, to fling
His dying splendour to these clouds. They burn
With borrowed gold and crimson, not their own,
Like strips of silk torn from his royal robe,
These flags of hope left by our solar king,
Who sinks for us below the dark horizon
That he might yet encompass all this globe.

He leaves us with the promise of his rising
For all we face the west of his decline,
Already some where else are voices praising
As on the east they glimpse a kindled line.
His setting is a herald of the morn,
We watch the sunset, but we tread the dawn.