Five Days of Looking Up

photo: Steve Peterson

I really enjoy the book, The Art of Noticing. Robert Walker has filled it with (I guess, though I've never counted) 161 exercises in noticing. This past week I gave myself the task: Document the (Seemingly) Identical. 

My choice? To look up, to document the sky above my head.

We were in for a long week of cloudy weather and I thought: what could be more seemingly identical than a week of clouds? During a pandemic?

So, I looked up. For the next five days, I stopped and looked up and snapped a photo. This happened at random times. Yet, it was always a delight to remember the project and take a moment out of my journey to let my eyes drift upward, away from where I thought I was heading.

And I discovered that this practice calmed me down; it helped me see variety in what might have seemed a lot of sameness, to see beauty where I might have missed it. Since I stopped photographing the sky, I have continued the practice of stopping on my walk and peering up at the sky.

Here is the poem that came from the photos. And below that are the poem and the photos put to music.


five days of looking up

this all
can seem so
gray
while
just above my head
the clouds
paint like Monet;
they scatter
a spatter of blue

– steve peterson