the moon on a leash

november 18

Cloudy, dark and windy.

Walking by flashlight

at six in the morning,

my circle of light on the gravel

swinging side to side,

coyote, raccoon, field mouse, sparrow,

each watching from darkness

this man with the moon on a leash.

It’s April, National Poetry Month (the sweetest or cruelest month, or maybe both, depending on one’s relationship to Chaucer and Eliot). And though poetry ought to be celebrated every month, calling out April to notice verse can’t be a bad thing.

I was reminded that it’s April by this NPR story about Maria Schneider and Dawn Upshaw collaborating on an album of settings of Ted Kooser’s Winter Morning Walks. The poem highlighted in the story, which turns a flashlight into the moon on a leash watched by wary crepuscular creatures, is just the sort of quiet magic spell that good poetry can accomplish. Later this month I’ll be camping and hiking with my Boy Scout troop, and I’m sure that this image of the moon on a leash will come back and make setting up tents in the dark a little less tedious and little more wonderful.

from Michael Hartford Blogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MichaelHartford/~3/-QbCOoVzGMA/

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