Song at sunset

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A glorious sunset over the winter dike looking towards Zalk (Overijssel)

A couple of Sundays ago we decided to pay a visit to an old favourite spot in our former neighbourhood in Zwolle: Westenholte. Situated in the outskirts, Westenholte is a village that became part of Zwolle in 1967, but it still keeps the charm of a typical Dutch dorpje (village) with beautiful farm houses, green fields with sheep and cows grazing and the winter dike, a haven for dozens of different bird species.
The afternoon was very cold and the sky didn't say much, being the usual dull grey that we very often see in these parts during the winter months. But as the day was coming to a close, the sky opened a tiny bit and we witnessed a glorious sunset. Hundreds of birds were flying off in groups and then settling down again on the water and the racket they were all making was almost overwhelming... At that moment I thought of a poem, Song at sunset, by Whalt Whitman:

Splendor of ended day floating and filling me,
Hour prophetic, hour resuming the past,
Inflating my throat, you divine average,
You earth and life till the last ray gleams I sing...

Another sunset, another Sunday - this time in Flevoland, near Dronte.

I didn't sing, but I felt as if I were at the opera watching the drama of the day reaching its climax to then end, and I immediately remembered something that I had read years ago about Catalonian artist Santiago Rusiñol.

Santiago Rusiñol, a Spanish painter, playwright and poet, apparently used to climb up a hill near his house every afternoon, and sit there as if at the theatre, waiting for the sunset to start. He would watch the sun begin to go down as if it were an actor  or an opera singer performing his part at the thetre. As the sun touched the horizon, Rusiñol would cheer, clap his hands and even ask for an encore if the sunset had been sublime. Instead, if he hadn't been moved at all by the spectacle of the day coming to an end, he would boo, hoot at the sun and walk away in disgust as a disappointed theatre goer who walks straight back to the box office to ask for his money back.

I glimpsed the sun setting down behind he row of houses in my neighbourhood.

With this in mind, I thought I would show you here some sunset photos taken by friends and share with you a few more verses Walt Whitman's poem, Song at Sunset. Feel free to cheer as much as you like, for they are all fantastic shots of beautiful sunsets in different places around the world:

(click on the images to see a large version of the photos)

Nighfall in Madrid (Spain) - by Artigazo (David)

Open mouth of my soul uttering gladness,
Eyes of my soul seeing perfection,
Natural life of me faithfully praising things,
Corroborating forever the triumph of things.

Taking off to a warmer place (Hoofddorp, NL) - by Agnes Lapin

Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself
How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
How the clouds pass silently overhead!
How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!

Mirrors (Coral Gables, Fl., USA) - by Roberto Bowyer

How the water sports and sings! (surely it is alive!)
How the trees rise and stand up, with strong trunks, with branches
and leaves!
(Surely there is something more in each of the trees, some living soul.)

Alley of ghosts (Rota, Spain) - by Artigazo (David)

O amazement of things--even the least particle!
O spirituality of things!
O strain musical flowing through ages and continents, now reaching
me and America!
I take your strong chords, intersperse them, and cheerfully pass
them forward.

Flames 2 (Philadelphia, USA) - by Roberto Bowyer

I too carol the sun, usher'd or at noon, or as now, setting,
I too throb to the brain and beauty of the earth and of all the
growths of the earth,
I too have felt the resistless call of myself.

Cuando el ocaso se acaba (when the day comes to an end) Gijón, Spain - by Urugallu (José Rodríguez)

I sing to the last the equalities modern or old,
I sing the endless finales of things,
I say Nature continues, glory continues,
I praise with electric voice,
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.

On fire (Conrwall, UK) - by Agnes Lapin

Oh setting sun! Though the time has come, 

I still warble under you, if no one else does, unmitigated adoration.

Ocaso en Peñas (sunset in Peñas) - Asturias, Spain - by Urugallu (José Rodríguez)

I want to thank Agnès, David (Artigazo), Roberto and José (Urugallu) for letting me show their beautiful photos here. It was hard to pick just a few to post since they all have amazing images - the real deal, as I often refer to their photos. You can see more of their work by visiting their fantastic Flickr galleries:

Agnès Lapin
Artigazo (David)
Roberto Bowyer
Urugallu (José Rodríguez)