Sunset over Mykonos: This Fierce Tenderness copyright 1976 by Tracy Marks (revised 2005) We raced the sun, almost missed the sunset, came upon it just as the orange orb balanced over the wild, churlish waters bleeding fire into the waves. Sunset over Mykonos, an explosion of color. Together we share this island of savage beauty, the wind battering the waters, the sky pummeling down the sun pushing it deeper         down                 down beneath the horizon of our consciousness. And then the raw bleeding clouds, the flaming pink and golden fires peeling across the sky. I am screaming with color, my soul, seared by this untameable magic where gentle blue melts into raging crimson where all the colors of my soul are splattered across the sky deepening long after dark descends. Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, gods of this tempestuous land, grant that your dusks be my resurrection. Grant that I can bear another sunset. Grant that I forever carry into each velvety night, throbbing and pulsing within me, your sacred fires, your fierce tenderness.

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