This week has been spent grading and recovering from a recent blow to my school community. I process things so slowly, or maybe most people do, too. It’s emotional compartmentalizing, I think, so everything comes in waves, but it’s never really so dramatic as that…but I think it’s often hard to tell what your body or emotions are going to do in response to a shock.
Regardless of a less-than-desirable week, early Tuesday morning I was fortunate enough to see the infancy of the hunter’s moon that made its grand appearance on the evening of October 20th, 2021. For not being a full moon, it certainly was lively and yellow, which was perfect for an October morning drive.
That is to say, the mood was just right.
Today, I am sharing David Wright’s “Moon” from Five Songs, because it plays with mood expertly and offers a darker feel to a celestial body that is often described brightly. Mood is important to execute in narratives and poetry, and this poem oozes the contrast of a vibrantly full moon and darker images of blood and death. With just the right words, writers have the ability to turn symbols into more haunting images.
“Moon” by David Wright
O up there, zero
Shape illumining
These hills, and that lake—
Puller of water,
—
Puller of blood, blind
Eye not looking, but
There, opaque, a ball:
Have seen you over
—
A dead roofscape of
Human sleep; wondered
Why you beat so still.
Even the mobile.
—
Windy surface of
Ocean seems, under
The quiet metal
Of that refracted
—
Lambency, gorgon
Struck.
Now have seen how,
Soft as a fruit,
—
Our blueveined mother
The warm, appalling
Earth rises, vapoury,
Over your shoulder.
