Moon
Stone in the sky
tumbles through centuries
of clouds smoothing out
absence with its presence
Maple
Just past their peak, wind-lifted
and let go like a child flung off a swing
higher than they have ever been
Meanwhile on the ridge line the trees
link arms and begin the walk home
With a moon not yet full behind a sky not yet clear
a glowing handprint floats over the house
holds emptiness like a drifting welcome
closed to nothing always open to you
So where is the past? Is it the terrain
in periphery, never the destination
but whose contours shape the weather?
Is it the icy light the moon reflects
on the tracks of things before me?
Wonderful deeds have we done, and
fearful things. They lay across the path
of parting like roots or over-hang
my steps with shade and snakes.
I do not wish to look
back. I only need to know
from which direction will come
the monster-god it has nurtured
to replace me so that I may stand
before him in the breach to turn away
his wrath, convince this pale reflection
that it could be a kinder god
O star you should have known
not even your memory will eclipse you
No distance will establish a shadow
between this heart and yours
The light that comes back to me
from something larger—is it
not my own joy which without you
I would never know?
You sleep beneath a quilt of moonlight.
As I cut off the lamp across the room
and walk into darkness the heavenly
body brightens. There is just enough
room for me, pushing aside a dog
or two, to press against you, fall in
to the rhythm of your breathing,
our dreams mountains on the moon
Waves crash—a murmur
in the moon’s ear—still asking
who is pulling whom
The moon of how you feel
shines much closer than the stars
closer than memory lighting the space
between then and next
In the surf of the beach
I dream us on and by our feet
glowing creatures imitate the stars
without reflecting them or caring to
It’s okay to look and
it’s nothing to look away
not knowing where we are walking to
under a moon of rush and surge
and while at the edge in the glowing
foam the now can seem shallow
this wave has been traveling
towards us for a long time
Now it is time to cross those tracks.
Yet I cannot tell on which side
I hear your breathing.
When the lamp is out
a lone firely rises like the moon
Haven’t seen the moon
for a week. Are you there with
me, beyond all cloud?
Like an important moment slid on its edge
or a memory blocked mostly by the dark present
Something seeming to shine as it descends
but not shining really but reflecting instead
this larger brilliance from the other direction
entirely and not descending but circling
as love circles and predators circle and
the confused prey circles and for all that
knowledge still it is the moon setting
over a local hill in early evening before
the first firefly I have seen all spring
lights up in my room on this moonless night
Translations from the English 