Thursday, October 28, 2004

WHAT WE COULDN'T SEE BEHIND LAST NIGHT'S SNOW

photograph from the NASA site by Lloyd Overcash of Houston, Texas

A picture named bloodmoon.jpg





From NASA's science site:According to folklore, October's full moon is called the "Hunter's Moon" or sometimes the "Blood Moon." It gets its name from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead... It's a lunar eclipse. Beginning at 9:14 p.m. EDT (6:14 p.m. PDT), the moon will glide through Earth's shadow for more than three hours....

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Blood Moon

for D

All day without my knowledge
I celebrated the full moon secretly
approaching behind the sky's white blanket
whose preluminaries fell to earth
in soft shreds of blue-white ice

All day I fasted without understanding
to hone my senses fine for night
when I would break the fast
with nine glasses of moon milk
when I would douse the fire in my skin
with my own two hands

In the season of new snow I commemorated the full moon
in its forgetting, and woke in a sweat, remembering,
and woke just as it finally came inside me
and woke just as it spilled all over the clouds.


6:09:40 AM    comment []