A More Poetic Time
I say, forget The Golden Hour when there's a more poetic time now there's a more precious paradigm that's actually beautiful inside. Not surface level, but instead– survivable. Thriveable. A time that wants you alive. Instead of gilded molten heatrays– The Platinum Hours– or, more like Platinum Periods: to preplan your outdoor adventures & errands in fossil-fueled heatwaves to happen during sunrise/sundown, because these days the pre-day and post-day light comes from inside. Moreover, it's cooler then. Like I said, it's beautiful inside faded light on silent monuments maybe already poetic enough we'll just call them Dawn & Dusk.
— Adam Powers
About This Poem
I've been volunteering as a neighborhood heat health organizer with Montgomery County as part of a citizen science project to use the power of community and heat sensors to map the urban heat island effect. One of my favorite parts of this organizing is talking with neighbors and folks about strategies for getting through extreme fossil-fueled heat. This poem came out of a piece of advice shared to try working outside activities in high heat nearer to the coolest times of day— dawn and dusk. I wanted to write on the inherent poetry in surviving at times of less harsh heated-light. There’s something to contrasting the time of day when pictures look the best to the times when temperatures are relatively cooler. To be fair, these times kind of overlap. Plus, no one should pit strong lumens against each other. No disrespect to a patron saint of the golden hour, Ms. Kacey Musgraves. Just some good-natured, poetic fun.