November 7
Today lovely low clouds with soft
grey underbellies, the grey almost
matching the blue of the sky.
Like Vermeer's View of Delft,
patches of sunlight moving slowly
across the city. There is such stillness
one notices time itself; some
would say "time stood still",
like the women in Vermeer's painting
who stand near the water talking
though they are too far to hear.
There is less sunlight than
shade today; one sees it it seems
as in the painting
always on distant rooftops
and trees. A good day
for reading at a window
or beneath a tree, the light
shining at the edges of the clouds
and from the small open areas of sky.
Prentiss Moore
