I have a notebook full of poetry from my early days in Peru... before I was married and had kids, and when I still had time to sit and contemplate the beauty all around me. Some of the poems aren't that great, but a few are worth posting. With each poem I'll include the original date when I wrote it. These first two poems describe the progression of a rainy-season sunset in the Andes.

Silver Sliver

3-5-99 

A silver sliver
floating above the darkening peaks 
Brilliant against a backdrop
  of somber gray.

One small cloud
   holds its own in a sea 
   of darkness -
Reflecting the sun’s last rays

Piercing my heart with a 
Silver Sliver of
Hope.

---

Beauty from Gray

3-5-99

I sit here in the chill
   of a cool mountain evening
Watching God make beauty
   from gray.

The glaciated peaks have been hidden
    for a month or more,
Leaving only the low-hanging, dismal
    gray of the clouds.

But even in gray there is beauty, 
    as the sun sinks behind the range
Leaving its fingerprint on the belly 
     of the rain.

I feel like I am gazing at the basement
     of the streets of gold
As I see the sky light up like heaven
     and I watch the brush of the Creator

Painting beauty from gray.