All across America, the world in fact, is indescribable beauty often referred to as visions of grandeur. Each day presents itself in living color with sights, sounds, even smells that tempt and tease innermost emotions. Skies may be crystal blue and cloudless, or dark and dreary with hints of an impending storm. Even within the storm lies beauty…a calm at the end of which one may be lucky enough to sight a rainbow.
What awakens your senses of a forthcoming rainbow? Is it the sight of cloudy skies, the smell of oncoming rain, or the sound of raindrops pelting the earth? Perhaps lightening pierces the haziness of morning and rolling thunder disturbs the short-lived stillness of the air with news a storm is approaching.
With each sense comes anticipation of sighting that well-known arc across the sky whose splendor boasts a colorful array of pastel hues. The RAINBOW!
Have you ever taken the time to count how many colors you see in a rainbow? Is there a set number or a continuous innumerable spectrum of colors? Speaking of colors, what about Roy G. Biv…ever heard of (him)? Are the colors the same for every rainbow that comes into view?
O-o-o-o-ooh! So many questions. Why not add a couple more: What actually forms the rainbow and is there a connection of rainbows to raindrops? Afterall, the RAINbow and RAINdrops both have ‘rain’ in common!
Did you know?
To see a rainbow, one must have both rain and sunshine,
A ray of sunlight enters and is reflected inside a raindrop, thus breaking white sunlight into colors,
There is never a single size for water drops in rain but a mixture of many sizes and shapes,
The sun is always behind you when you face a rainbow and
The center of the circular arc of the rainbow is in the direction opposite to that of the sun.
In other words…
The Rainbow
Since the beginning of time
Questions arise again and again
Like how far away
Does a rainbow start and end?
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How far away are the raindrops
That capture the sunlight?
The nearest may be miles upon miles
Yet sparkle in the daylight
The rainbow is nature’s gift
After the cleansing rain
Is each one unique
No two ever the same?
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Can the eyes of two people
Seize the same rainbow in time?
Each observer sees different raindrops
Making each vision sublime
Size of the raindrops
Sets the color’s purity
Does bigger mean brighter
The smaller less clarity?
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What makes the colors
As vivid as can be?
It’s all about angles and light
The colors that we see
A red band on the outer edge
A primary rainbow declares
Yet what happens when
A secondary rainbow appears?
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Are the double rainbows
Mirror images of each other?
Colors of the second reverse
Complimenting one another
Seven colors
Tiny prisms beget
Orange, yellow, green
Blue, indigo, violet
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Another question arises
Since above are only six
Have you forgotten
Red is first in the mix?
Where, oh where
The one we’ve heard about
From the days of old
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It’s the rainbow itself
That’s the golden prize
What greater splendor
Than right before your eyes!
©2014 catnipoflife
Sharla Lee Shults
“May each rainbow sparkle with the seven colors of the rainbow: strength, joy, sunshine, harmony, faith, wisdom and spirituality.” ~SLS
©2015 catnipoflife
catnipoflife 