7:30 BELLS: When It’s All Been Said Before—Times Two

Curses on L. Frank Baum for sentimentalizing rainbows. I woke up this morning to see this double rainbow arching across the Salish Sea. I threw my jacket over my pajamas and watched on the windy deck. The foundations rose from the most churning part of the water. The bells rang inside me at this beautiful transitory thing the world had made. But how could I possibly write a 7:30 BELLS post about rainbows? It’s all been said. 

And then I thought, not every beautiful sight has to come with or be expressed by some personal or divine revelation. Sometimes it is enough, even for the poet, to simply stand there in witness and wonder.


Soon the rainbow faded and I went in to warm up.

Not five minutes later, a second double rainbow appeared, this arch more complete and brilliant than the first. Again the jacket flew over the pajamas. Two double rainbows in five minutes. You know what, Dorothy? Birds don’t just fly over the rainbow. Birds fly under the grandest most triumphal arch in the world. That’s the way I want to go. Not over, but deeper into the world.

There. You knew I couldn’t leave it alone, didn’t you?

LORE OF THE BELL

Even when its all be said before,

let the bells ring.

7:30 BELLS Posts run every Tuesday.

7:30 BELLS Guest Posts run on the second Tuesday of every month. Join me on November 11 for a guest post with author Martha Brockenbrough.