Fifteen Seconds of Fame

I love the play of sunlight on partly cloudy days. The way it randomly hot lights an object, a towering glass building, a tableau of trees, a distant church spire, against a backdrop of dark clouds. Ephemeral, magical, and impossible to capture on film, at least with my humble camera. The experience intensified by autumn's colors and the transience of the moment.



Fifteen Seconds of Fame


On a gray October morning
with northwest winds shifting
the contours of the sky
the east sun emerges
through an aperture in the clouds
and spotlights a yellow drenched
elm for a fleeting few seconds
before the cover closes
and the leaves fade to fools gold.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor