Home Literature Stories Movies Games Comics Blogs News Discussion Forum Art Gallery
  Science Fiction and Fantasy News
MORE AUTHORS CONFIRMED FOR DISCOVER FESTIVAL (01-27)
Angry Robot's Open Door Month returns (01-25)
New Event, Leicestershire, England (01-08)
Dark Hall Press - new Horror Fiction imprint, (11-03)

Official sffworld Reviews
Juggernaut by Adam Baker (02-12 - Book)
Necropath by Eric Brown (02-06 - Book)
Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds (02-06 - Book)
WOOL by Hugh Howey (02-02 - Book)


More from same author

Site Index

Poem    Bookmark and Share

El Dorado Dusk by Stuart Atkinson


(2 ratings)
Rate this Poem (5 best)

 

EL DORADO DUSK

(inspired by the "Solset panoram" created by members of the Unmanned Spaceflight Forum - http://www.zip.com.au/~gjn/MERSFX/Images/solset.jpg )

At solset, this world is glorious.
Shadows lengthen, stretching
Lazily across a landscape surrendering to the night.

Colours deepen, senses sharpen;
Beauty swathes the ugliest
Boulders in an ochre cloak of bruised and burnished gold.

Shooting stars skip giddily o’erhead
Even before the Sun has fled
Abandoning El Dorado to the stark Noachian Dark.

And yet, in Ancient Ages
Water, not dust, this silent basin filled,
Beneath an aching sky as blue as the Dusk Star’s sapphire hue.

My rocks, kissed by raindrops -
Tears shed for Life’s Lost World –
Glistened like jewels in the feather-soft light of dawn.

But no salty sea surges here now.
Though once these rugged rocks felt
The vaguest tickle, the briefest, tenderest touch of Life
They are now skeletons of stone;
Time first bathed and soothed them
But now has dried and cracked these stones to splintered bone.

And yet, at solset, Beauty.
This cold world lovingly painted gold.
When Men come here, they will see this Temple of Light, and cry.


© Stuart Atkinson 2006



Sponsor ads

 

Latest

Juggernaut by Adam Baker
02-12 - Book Review
Necropath by Eric Brown
02-06 - Book Review
Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
02-06 - Book Review
WOOL by Hugh Howey
02-02 - Book Review
Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue by Hugh Howey
02-02 - Book Review
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
02-01 - Book Review
Interview with Hugh Howey
02-01 - Interview
Tau Ceti by Kevin Anderson
01-31 - Book Review
Well of Sorrows by Benjamin Tate
01-31 - Book Review
Dead in the Water by Sandy Mitchell
01-31 - Book Review
Interview with Myke Cole Part 2
01-29 - Interview
MORE LEADING AUTHORS CONFIRMED FOR DISCOVER FESTIVAL
01-27 - News
Interview with Myke Cole
01-25 - Interview
Angry Robot's Open Door Month returns
01-25 - News
Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan
01-24 - Book Review
Empire State by Adam Christopher
01-21 - Book Review
Control Point by Myke Cole
01-17 - Book Review
Seven Princes by John R. Fultz
01-11 - Book Review
The Emperor's Knife by Mazarkis Williams
01-10 - Book Review
New Event, Leicestershire, England
01-08 - News
SFFWorld Review of the Year 2011: Part 3
01-06 - Article
The Recollection by Gareth L. Powell
01-03 - Book Review
Zombies: A Compendium of the Living Dead by Otto Penzler
01-02 - Book Review
SFFWorld Review of the Year, 2011: Part 2
01-02 - Article
SFFWorld Review of the Year 2011: Part 1
12-30 - Article
SFFWorld Review of the Year 2011: Part 1
12-30 - Article
Seed by Rob Ziegler
12-28 - Book Review
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell
12-27 - Book Review
Conan the Indomitable by Robert E. Howard
12-24 - Book Review
The Astounding, the Amazing and the Unknown by Paul Malmont
12-24 - Book Review

New Forum Posts




About - Advertising - Contact us - RSS - For Authors & Publishers - Contribute / Submit - Privacy Policy - Community Login
Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use. The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1997-2011 sffworld.com. All Rights Reserved.