Songs of Earth and Moon

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Far away, storms eat winds and send them swirling–
but here, now, the sky is gowned in midnight blue
and a peach moon shines over sleeping gardens.
The fiddler plays a soft lullaby
recalling dreams of aching beauty–
and if I don’t understand them all,
I recognize the song of whisperings seas,
and the beat of heron wings, the language of seasons,
of hope and despair, and I smile at the dawning light.

Heron, Delaware River at Red Bank Battlefield.©️Merril D. Smith, 2021

The Magnetic Poetry Oracle gave me a poem today that I think goes with Ingrid Wilson’s publication, The Anthropocene Hymnal. It’s available now. Read her post here for information. All money earned from it goes to the World Wildlife Fund.
I have one poem in the volume, and the beautiful cover is by Kerfe Roig.

The July full moon is called the Buck Moon, but I think it should be a peach moon. I was hoping to see it early this morning, but it was already too low in the sky. I did see Jupiter though–and
I saw this heron today and wondered if it was “my” heron from last summer.

37 thoughts on “Songs of Earth and Moon”

  1. Okay, this is beyond beautiful. I really loved these lines for their truth, complexity, and rawness:

    “I recognize the song of whisperings seas,
    and the beat of heron wings, the language of seasons,
    of hope and despair, and I smile at the dawning light.”

    There is always hope and that’s what may keep us going. This is definitely fitting for the release of The Anthropocene Hymnal especially as this touches on the relevant issues of nature and climate change.

    Beautifully penned, as always. ❤️❤️

  3. Yes! Your poem is an affirmation of the hope at the end of mine. You hear the music and see the night and the ocean but you hear hope in it. Your fiddler might have been playing Redon’s lyre too 🙂

  5. I was going to say my favourite lines were the first three, then I kept on and thought, no, the last three to finally decide the whole thing is beautiful. Love, love, love!

  7. Lovely, Merril, and I also prefer your naming of the moon to Peach Moon rather than Buck Moon (where the heck did Buck come from?). It would be wonderful if the heron is “yours” of last summer 🙂

    • Thank you so much, Marie.
      I read that July is when the antlers on bucks reach full growth? But peaches seems more summery to me. 😀
      No heron today, but I did see an egret.

      • I just looked up Buck Moon. There’s a couple of competing explanations but I like this one from the NASA Science website (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1933/july-2021-the-next-full-moon-is-the-buck-moon/):
        “The Maine Farmer’s Almanac first published Native American names for the full Moons in the 1930s. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in July – the Algonquin tribes in what is now the northeastern United States called this full Moon the Buck Moon. Early summer is normally when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. They also called this the Thunder Moon because of early Summer’s frequent thunderstorms.”

        It makes Buck Moon sound appealing, but I still prefer your Peach Moon 🙂

  9. This is beautifully soothing Merril – quite a contrast to Kerfe’s poem! I was lucky enough to witness the almost full moon over the canal in Venice last night 😊 thank you so much for mentioning the Hymnal and helping to spread the word 🙏

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