Moon Sky
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 11:24PM
It will be quiet here for the next week or so while I pursue flights of creative fancy and take a break from the computer. I look forward to seeing you soon. In the meantime, here's a little story I wrote earlier this month.
What story do I want to tell you? What story do you want to hear?
Late one night – or early one morning if you prefer – I stuck my head and upper body out my second floor studio window, stretching to peek around the far left corner of the house where the full Corn Moon lit up the sky. It was nearly 5:00 a.m., but I hadn't gone to bed yet.
With the full moon and light fog, even the darkness was luminescent, seemingly lit from within. The sky was a pale blue pool, with stipples of white clouds glowing in the moonlight. I've never seen such a friendly and enchanting night sky.
I leaned out the window. The window frame cracked, and I yanked my torso inside, imagining the weight of wood and glass on my back. When nothing happened, I poked my head back out into the night. I leaned out, just a bit further than I thought was safe. I inadvertently imagined falling into the small bushes below. I wondered who would hear my cries and find me first, doubting it would be my husband, so soundly does he sleep. Everything was quiet and still. For once, I didn't feel very afraid. If I were just a little braver or had had some company, I would have taken a predawn stroll around the neighborhood, just to walk about in the open under such a sky.
I would have liked to swim in that sky. It was like a sea lit up with bioluminescence. It was like a cool baptismal pool. It was like the portal to all my dreams.
But it was nearly five in the morning, so I shut the window and closed the blinds. But before I went to bed I opened them once more for one last glimpse. I was sad to leave that sky for sleep. I dreamt I told you about the sky. But even in my dreams I couldn't do it justice.
* * *
How can I recreate the sky in words? What can I say about the moon that hasn't always been said? All of the words that come to mind are hackneyed: shining, silver, pale, glowing, bright, mysterious, cool, benevolent, majestic, luminous, round.
Maybe I could say that the moon looked like a luminescent opal. Isn't that a moonstone?
How do I tell you about the precise color of light blue that shone in the sky around the full moon? I don't know what to call that blue except "my favorite." Maybe pale watery blue. It was like a patch of day in the night-dark sky, the opposite of an eclipse. It was like a drink of water after a long nap.
The full moon shows me that the sky is still with us, even without the sun. The blue and white do not disappear, rather they just go unlit.
Is this true? Are blue and white really the truth of the sky? Or is the unfathomable darkness with pinpricks of starlight the real thing? Do the moon and sun lie to us, perpetuate an illusion that we're bathed in light, be it golden or silver? How do we find the true sky? How can my words ever reach so high and so deep into the heart of things?
This is exactly why I do not try to describe the sky.
Reader Comments (3)
Good for you!
Enjoy your time away.
Hope your schedule and attitude are smoothing themselves out as you pursue what makes you shine like the full moon :)