Arizona Sky

The last rays of setting sun struggle with the coming darkness as the blue black of the eastern sky begins to show the familiar pattern of the brightest distant stars in the universe. It’s a one-of-a-kind show well-worth the price of admission and surprisingly it is free to those willing to attend out here in the far wilds of the Arizona desert land. This is still the land of the big sky where all things are visible as God paints his twinkling portrait on the canvas of the night sky. This is a land still much akin to the Native American, wild and free. It is land far from the madness of the big city lights and crowded streets. It is a land only few men chose as their home, yet, when the night sky appears with all its wonder, all who come here know why they stay.

Night after night, the show goes on with a clarity and creativity only God himself can provide to those who watch. The shooting stars make their minute treks into obscurity. On some nights there are far too many of them and they run like raindrops down a blackened pane of glass. There is a sadness in not being able to savor each one as it flashes its last bright marks across to sky in one last hurrah of light that earmarks its farewell. It is a familiar yet different landscape each time it appears and your eyes gaze upon it. The universe in all its wonder is truly exposed to man’s eye in this one place.

The mixture of sunshine, wind, and moisture from the sea is a recipe for an army of towering thunderheads that march along in the night sky fighting among themselves with bolts of lightning that cascade from each of these cumulonimbus giants. They douse the thirsted desert land with precious rain that carries on the wind a scent so distinctive and so welcome as it approaches. Though the sky is temporarily obscured by this dynamic tangle of energy and might, the light show continues as the lightning dances on the desert floor and mesa tops. The thunder grumbles for the attention this beast demands in its trek to the next horizon. When it passes, it leaves behind it the undisturbed beauty of the far universe and the night sky.

This sky bring others as well. Many times you have seen them now. At first they were just distant unfamiliar lights hovering over some far mesa watching the lands below. As time past there were more of them and they came closer. Like the men of earth, they too were curious and could not turn away from their questioning nature. They have not come to harm but to learn. They know we are here. They have known for a multitude of human time. Yet they still come and watch. In this sky they know only a few will see them and it is here they choose to expose themselves to those few.

You have watched their ships come closer over time; watched them land on the desert floor. They have made themselves visible to you and you were not afraid. Their shape and form was different yet not one to be described as ugly or grotesque. In their presence, you could sense both their curiosity and their humanity. Though powerful in their own way and obviously learned beyond the mind of man, they are still fascinated by some aspect of that which makes up the earth. That fascination brings them back to the skies of Arizona to observe.

There are those who would tell of their sightings. The stories of UFO’s abound and seem to come and go like the ebb of the ocean tide. You see no value in joining that circle or attempting to convince the unknowing of anything that you have witnessed here under these stars. It has no significance to you whether they believe or even see it for that matter. This sky with all its wonder, its beauty, belongs to the Creator and it will be the Creator alone who will decide who sees and who will not. For you, it is enough to know that you are among the few who do see at this point and for that you are so humbly thankful.

Morning will come soon and the bright sunshine of day will deliver its promise once again over the land. The lizard and the rattlesnake will scurry for shade after warming themselves on the hot rocks of the night. Mother Nature will stir her cauldron adding just the right amount of each ingredient to create yet another visible phenomenon in the atmosphere of earth. You will see it through and be thankful for yet one more day with its coming night.

Starry,starry night
paint your palette blue and grey

look out on a summer's day
with eyes that know the
darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills
sketch the trees and the daffodils

catch the breeze and the winter chills

in colors on the snowy linen land.
And now I understand what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they did not know how

perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry,starry night
flaming flo'rs that brightly blaze

swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in
Vincent's eyes of China blue.
Colors changing hue
morning fields of amber grain

weathered faces lined in pain
are soothed beneath the artist's
loving hand.
And now I understand what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you
but still your love was true

and when no hope was left in sight on that starry
starry night.
You took your life
as lovers often do;
But I could have told you
Vincent
this world was never
meant for one
as beautiful as you.

Starry,starry night
portraits hung in empty halls

frameless heads on nameless walls
with eyes
that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the stranger that you've met

the ragged men in ragged clothes

the silver thorn of bloody rose
lie crushed and broken
on the virgin snow.
And now I think I know what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity

how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they're not
list'ning still
perhaps they never will.

(From the song, “Vincent” – Don McLean)

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