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June 14, 2017

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Photography, Poetry

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Moonlight Gloss

Setting sun river

Moonlight glosses
dark waters.
Its silver light
beckons across
cold, silent space,
soothing us in our
troubled sleep.

It lights our darkest corners,
washing pole and equator
with bipartisan ardor,
rising and shining despite
bombings, shootings,
stonings, beatings, murders.

It tempts like Yeats:
Come away, human child,
to the waters and the wild.
The world has more weeping
than you can understand.

Copyright 2017 Brenda Davis Harsham

Notes: This poem was inspired in part by Yeats, whose words illuminate the last stanza and who wove Irish folktales into these magical words:

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.

— William Butler Yeats, The Stolen Child, found in Poetry for Young Readers: William Butler Yeats, Sterling Publishing, 2002. The “Rosses” is a seaside vacation spot that was visited by the Yeats Family.

In part, this poem was inspired by the London Glenfell Tower fire, the world conflicts and the Alexandria shootings. My heart goes out to victims, families, responders, neighbors and others affected. We don’t know the cause of the fire, but the alarm didn’t go off. The shootings seem to be an armed, deliberate attack on Congress and therefore on all Americans. Violence is not an answer and doesn’t heal conflict. I agree with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe that we have too many guns on the street. Republican or Democrat, we can agree that we don’t want to be terrorized, hunted, shot or killed.

33 thoughts on “Moonlight Gloss”

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  4. In our lives we meet Good People and bad people but then there are people like you Barbara who shine like a ⭐️ in the firmament of the ❤️ they are exceptional as being gentle, kind, caring and compassionate are just second nature .. Ian 😊

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  7. Such a beautiful poem (inspired in yet another beautiful poem).

    Well achieved counterpoint between the peaceful Nature and the human most times “violent domains” .
    The second stanza is so moving, by the way….

    Sending love & best wishes, dear Bren. Happy weekend ahead! ⭐

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