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