“And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
Act 3, Scene 2, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
stalking the sun
moonshadow
overtakes a blaze
a brilliant crescent of the furnace sun
penumbra of celestial movements
as the shadow spreads
like a silent bell
like the eyes of a wolf closing slowly
in the summer dusk
stealthy in the daylight sky
moonbreath
respiration
like lifting of the deep green leaves
grown fat with summer
breath as silent as a hungry cat
moving slowly on
the flaming prey
moonfrost
the curtain cool with darkness
spreads its shade
sending thoughts of sleep
into the darkening air
to the obliging beasts
who sleep when cool dark
comes
moonsong
we stand below
we listen
through the hush of glasses
shadows humming
whispering like silent snow
music soft behind our shaded eyes
moonfire
as the moon arrives
the solar rim ignites a
crown, corona
dogged moon scrapes
its ragged rim
conflagration
blazing beads of fire
and thoughts of diamond rings
and then
totality
(Posted 2017 September 20)
Also see the Diane Woodward Dorff haiku, Solar Haiku, in anticipation of the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21.