online: 17 june 2011 modified: 10, 11, 17 june 2011 10 june 2011 a thunderstorm
city forest
...looking at a thunderstorm over central london... occasional flashes of lightning... and sustained rumbles of thunder... the whole storm is visible from this the highest seat on the heath... and here outside the storm the air is unnaturally still... as if there could be rain at any moment...
...behind me (to the northwest) is a mild cloudy sunset... but ahead (to the southeast) is the storm over the city... perhaps 5 miles (about 8 km) away from this highest point... i breathe in the damp cool air and feel lucky to have arrived in time to see the rain clouds and thunderstorm moving slowly in this direction... (i was brought up to enjoy frequent storms on the atlantic coast... but we seldom see this kind of weather in london)...
...no, i may be mistaken... the storm now seems to be retreating to the southeast... or perhaps it's just melting away as dense rain cloud is replaced by transparent air... without high voltage sparks or sudden thermal changes...
... yes the storm's begun to fade and the city towers are again visible... the sense of atmospheric stress is gone as mild sunlight creeps back... revealing details of buildings and trees and hills in the distance... perhaps 12 miles away (about 19km)...
...returning by bus to the remembered joys of apprehending each and every thing or sight or sound or smell or vibe ... and in the occurrence of any action... of ourselves or other animals... e.g. the stored and hidden voice that speaks each bus stop name as we approach it... as these and each phenomenon seem now to increase in value as it or they take here a form of words... (and hidden mystery)
for comfortable line length please set the window to about half of the screen width
You may transmit this text to anyone for any non-commercial
purpose if you include the copyright line and this notice and if you
respect the copyright of quotations.
If you wish to reproduce any of this text commercially please
send a copyright permission request to jcj 'at' publicwriting.net
(replace 'at' and spaces by the @ sign)
