Now Reigns Full-Orbed the Moon²
As Moon Smiles, she resembles you:
You give off the Same Impression of
Something Beautiful, but Annihilating³
The Moon is more Beautiful Later: when
I’ve gone to Bed with my Poem about the
Moon – the Real Moon is Too Real for my
Poem: the moon in my Poem is best for Poetry⁴
The Thief Left it behind: the Moon at the Window⁵
The Moon – methinks – looks with a Wat’ry Eye,
And when she Weeps, weeps every little Flower⁶
We carry Chunks of the Moon to Light tunnels
Through the Darkness between Constellations⁷
I see the Moon, and the Moon sees Me –
God bless the Moon, and God bless Me⁸
We Defy our ages, and gaze long
At the Last Sky before Moonset⁹
I Fasten the Moon with a safety
Pin to give us Perpetual Light¹⁰
¹ Carl Sandburg, She Held Herself a Deep Pool for Him
² John Milton, Paradise Lost
³ Sylvia Plath, The Rival
⁴ Unknown, A Song for the Moon
⁵ Ryōkan tr. John Stevens, The Thief Left it Behind
⁶ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
⁷ Robert Bly, A Journey with Women
⁸ Nursery Rhyme
⁹ Mahmoud Darwish tr. Akash & Forché, Addresses for the Soul
¹⁰ Anne Sexton, Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)