MOONSTRUCK

Photo by S. Auberle

Who is there among us who has not done
some foolish thing under the full moon's light?
Walking last night, bathed in her radiance,
it occurred to me that though I've seen
more full moons in my life than I'm willing
to say, I never lose my sense of awe when
she comes, round and luminous, rising
from behind the mountain, or through the pines.
Remember the movie Moonstruck, with Cher
and Nicholas Cage playing a one-armed butcher?
And how on earth could we poets manage without
a moon to compose under, weep under, make love
beneath? I have many moon poems, but this is
a favorite...

THE MOON BEFORE IT RISES

Oh, I knew you were coming.
I knew, because even though clouds
in my life were getting blacker
and blacker, boiling overhead
in long, dark nights, even though
monsoon storms kept rocketing through,
every now and then a sweet twilight would appear
following sunsets I'd never seen before--orange
and pink and purple and blue swirling in the west
rainbows in the east arching over a red sky
yes I knew something was coming
and I hoped it was you...so I walked out one night
under a black velvet sky, cloud mountains
towering all around and there was a glow in the east
like a thousand night suns spreading up
from behind those clouds and I stood there,
spellbound, watching that radiance rising
and didn't know if it was day or night
with all that gold and silver light
shooting through the skies, but
still only a teasing anticipation, rousing
night birds, stopping truckers on the highway
wondering if the end had come, but I knew
it was just the beginning. I knew at any moment
you'd appear, like that full harvest moon and
when that great ball of light finally burst into sight
I was reborn, delivered into the light
and oh love be kind, for I'm still naked
and newborn in your arms.

- mimi