A Few of My Favorite Moons

On Global Astronomy Night, April 24, I hosted a star party in Los Angeles where we had a perfectly clear sky, nine telescopes, and a congregation of about 200 neighbors and their children. It was, in fact, a perfect night-and, ignoring Saturn, I kept my telescope pointed at the moon all evening. What I remember most about it is how one 5-year-old girl jumped up and down around my telescope, shouting "The moon, the moon, I love the moon!"

Here are some moons that I have loved, over the years:

Looking for poems
In the pale afternoon sky...
Only a slim moon.

Like a weak, wan smile
Gleaming through incoming fog:
Moon of Ramadan.

Lit by a slim moon,
Two young snails cross the sidewalk
As fast as they can.

Three-thirty P.M.-
And a pale white gibbous moon
Haunts our pale blue sky.

Fat gibbous moon ploughs
Through pale criss-crossed swells of cloud...
The far traffic sighs.

Borne on lofty winds,
Pearl-white contrail slides across
Moon and Jupiter.

The Moon and Saturn
Conjured up these clouds to hide
Their midnight meeting.

(The Moon and Saturn had an occultation at 12:17 A.M. on that night, Dec. 27, 2001.)

The cricket's chirping
Strokes the warm night air; the moon
Trembles in the pool.

A thousand full moons
Swim in dewdrops in the deep
Sea-blue of my car.

How bright the full moon,
Coming out of her eclipse-
Unhurt by shadow.

Out-of-focus moon,
Dim and bleary, tries to climb
Up the eastern sky.

Stars are few, the moon
Waning; far off, the deep groan
Of a million cars.

The moon waning, and
Stars few; some faithful ones still
Are shining like love.

As the night grows old,
Rising like a little smile:
A very old moon.

The dawn now too bright
For that waning Paschal moon
To even be seen.

(Poems copyright © 2007, Robert L. Eklund)