Future Moons Poems

Last Updated: January 12, 2011

Future Moons - Poems

Future Moons

Sleep, take me quick
My dreams have waited too long again
Let me plunge with abandon
Into that pleasant dark abyss.
I can fly in any direction
Unfettered by Earth
Or any other gravity, here or gone,
And so I choose a new infinity.
Future moons take me quick
To sweet alternatives.
Don't wake my Soul too soon.

*****

My Soul's Journey

One night I flew away to learn the lessons of the Way.
My body slept but my heart and soul knew the path.
I traversed the Universe and violated earthly laws
Of speed, and time, and mass, and energy.

I tried to make the journey hard, yet ease was all I had.
I looked for mountains to climb yet soft plains were what I found.
I searched for cold seas to ford, but welcome shallows did my way.
I looked for storms of harm, yet these dissolved to sunny skies.

I met a billion other souls and yet they were all the One.
The One became infinity and overtook my Mind.
Then I knew no separation with the Infinite Whole –
The lessons my soul sought were mine to share – not learn.

*****

A Shared Thought

I wish there was something I could do or say,
To make it all go far, far away.
Those unexpected telephone calls
Hurl you unexpectedly into some pell-mell hell.
Those who care about you are left behind
In some inadequate and unaffirmed torment,
Wanting to reach out and lend comfort,
But condemned to stay apart lest they too
Add to that uninvited infernal confusion.
Flowers? Card? Muffins or a meal?
All are conjured up as poor substitutes
To meet needs of giver or griever.
Solace can only be a deep shared thought --
An ethereal link between two participants
In Life, both dealing with the divinity
Of themselves and those they care about.
Whatever the result of your woe
Share a thought with me, even across the
Miles and know I care about the outcome
Without a word, or note, or deed.
I am the imaginary shoulder to cry on or
The gossamer arm to lift you up
When no others appear to pull you
From your lamentation.
Silently, yet away,
I am there.
I care.

*****

Approach*
The wings' dull edge gathers a transparent hoary frost.
How long has it been doing that? A minute? Two?
"Higher, please?" and the interminable wait.
"Climb and maintain niner thousand."
Nine's not better, it's worse. "Higher, please?"
The edge is now a thickening, rough white.
Climbs to eleven were always slow anyway.
Sunlight at ten-five. Now worry descent.
Tailwinds partly pay for the need to climb. Not bad.
One-twenty indicated and One-fifty on the DME.
Suddenly the headset chatter calls my name.
"Descend to and maintain five thousand."
Pitot heat, check. Power, adjust. Time, check.
Plunge into the puffy grey abyss. I disappear.
My sunny day was fading anyway. Now all is grey.
I test my scan. Routine. Add in a wing check.
Snow. Wet snow. Heavy wet snow. Accumulating.
I think I utter a stream of explitives that won't help.
"Lower, faster, please." "Cleared to three thousand.
Pilot's discretion." I love that phrase anyway.
My windscreen thermometer tells me that we're
running on the verge anyway and lower is better.
We break freezing at four thou. We're dropping
at better than a thousand a minute. One way.
Cruise descent. More grey. Thirty three. One-fifty.
Numbers, numbers, numbers. More grey.
ATIS sounds bleak. I'm current for LIFR.
My standards are tougher than the instructor.
Checklist. Vectors. Wetness. Grey. Dark.
Stobes off. Lights on. Checklist. Darker grey.
Welcome the first twitch of needle off the pin.
Intercept. Time. Checklist. Gear. Flaps.
Wings shed the last vestige of higher altitudes,
an ultra thin veneer of ice you wouldn't know
was there except when it starts to flake off
amidst the warm watery rain.
Glide slope flicker. Intercept. GUMPS again.
Check the plate, almost memorized now,
even the coffee stain in the corner from some now
distant cold cup of coffee and inadequate lunch.
Centered, or nearly so. Down the chute, very wet..
Calm voices replace the terminal chatter.
Lights at four hundred. Wonderful. No diversion.
The line crew let me park myself. I'm home.

* The author was a commercial instrument pilot for over thirty years.

*****

Contrails

White contrails pass beneath the moon,
The midnight blue, star studded sky,
a deep contrast to the rifle shot of
white sweeping halfway across.
Jet Eighty carriers another plane
Southwest towards New York.
This night, so crisp with marsescent
leaves still on colored trees below,
moves my wandering mind again
to a calm night many lifetimes ago
when I headed for the warmth
of home yet cherished the black.
Me and my humble aircraft fly on,
destined to our lower altitudes,
a deep, satisfactory rumble
consistently maintained behind
the dimmed panel of quiet
instruments and chattering radios.
I turn the panel lights off, and
use swatches of tape to
cover the remaining offending bulbs.
Tonight I love the moon rise
as I speed Northeast over the
dim New England moors.
The moon in my windscreen
rewards me by first a subtle glow
and then a slice, and then a major
arc of disappearance. The much
advertised eclipse an unfolding
event to last a lifetime has arrived.
At first the radio is a hum with
comments - pilots to controllers
locked away in safe havens of
electronics, who'll never to see
Nature's event that awes my mind
and dims the land passing below.
Later, near my destination,
the radios are silent but for the
rare staccato burst of static.
I descend in the new darkness,
my lights finally making the runway
edge reflectors sparkle as I land.
I too am silent on the way home
and tonight no car radio blows
away the loneliness. Tonight it's
just me and the now growing
moon - regaining its lost position
as it climbs the midnight sky.

*****

Commitment Vows for Joel, Allison and Kate*

I welcome you as my lifelong partner,
To share my life openly with,
To speak truthfully and lovingly to,
To accept you as you are,
To delight in whom you are becoming,
To respect your uniqueness,
To encourage your fulfillment,
And to support you through all the changes
Over our years together.
I promise you my love and commitment,
An ear for your joys, a shoulder for your tears,
And my arms for you always.
As a token of my bond, I give you this ring,
For, as a ring has no end,
So my love for you has no end.

* Joel, Allison, and Kate are fictional characters in the story New Life.

*****

Cycles (c. 1980)

Hardly a wind passed by that didn't bode ill.
My trials rising unshouldered and unmet
Until the ponderous sight of them all
Caused my fall and failing and death.
I died then to arise and be borne again
New and clean and pure. Growing now.
Meeting each new tribulation
With solutions and enthusiasm -
Independent. Alone. Strong.
In the summer of my life,
Facing the autumn and its fall,
And then winter ... again ... and again.

*****

Leaves and Trees (c. 1980)

Marcescent leaves finally cutting free to the wind,
Trapped no longer - Riding a sunny breeze
To the sky carrying autumnal colors aloft.
I look with envy and hold two roles.
One I seek to flee, not everyday - the tree.
Growing, grasping, giving life to its leaves
Only to cut them free at Nature's bidding
Part of a forest it cannot flee.
The other a seeker of roots and suckling
Of earth, entwined with kind forever.

*****

Things I Want to Do ... (c. 1981)

I owe a thousand obligations
And someone owns my time.
Calls, visits, and trips to make
At someone else's beckoning.
I want some quiet time
Alone with my reflections –
Staring at sky or
Pushing hard up one more hill.
Or, better still, some time to be
With those I love in some
Passion of life or frivilous pursuit –
Like walking barefoot on the beach.

*****

Fleeting Glimpses (c. 1981)

Fleeting glimpses of
Lives unlived
Loves unloved
Times unfolded
Cares undelivered
Words unspoken
Embraces ungiven
Touches unmade
You've given me.

*****

If I Should Die Tomorrow (July 1981)

If I should die tomorrow
And leave the thousands of
I love yous left unsaid,
And the thank yous never
Spoken because of death's
Taking, please know they
Float from my unsilent
Soul, restless in my heaven.
As wife you made me grow
To someone great, but
Only because you made me so.
You gave me hope, courage,
And freedom, and enabled
Me to find happiness within.
You gave me two joys to
Fill my heart forever –
A priceless gift I didn't
Earn, and now, at best,
Am just learning to cherish.
If I leave you some pain
And strife, know I wish I
Could share the burden.
If you find new pleasure
In your life, know I wish I
Could double it for you.
If I can live tomorrow,
Then let my heart be open
To you, so the words flow
From my mute mouth,
The kisses touch your lips,
Until another tomorrow comes.

*****

Flirtations (1981)

Flirtations with mortality and immortality
Fill my head these summer nights.
Spirit, mind, and body lean and tan
Run through cloudy days to an
Unknown point on an unseen horizon.
Arms outstretched to the heaven's rain –
Or are the droplets tears from my eyes?
Both mix with the earth's clay
To form a fragile fall with lovely
Autumn colors my blind eyes cannot see.
I'm locked in step with Nature and
The cruel tides of an uncontrollable
Time that cuts my step and weakens
My pace on even the most familiar trails,
Which when pursued, look foreign and void.
A short time later with decades past
The marcescent leaves weigh with snow
And my bequests to life are white footprints.
A new spring recreates creation and
Fills my mind with the intimations
As usual – hints of a beyond but
Here, a now, but then, a being yet undone.
Never becomes forever; forever an
Infinity; infinity a microcosm of my
Thought process and brings me back
To an everyday reality this warm eve.
Flirtations with mortality and immortality
Fill my head these summer nights.

*****

Silent Dimensions (c. 1980)

Alive dimensions of sensation –
Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste –
Fill my everyday and try to
Saturate my Soul.
But you add still further axes
To the world around me:
Wonder, as each day starts;
Love, to carry me through;
Caring, beyond myself; and
Need, for others, especially you.
Did you know the limitless
Span of these four new dimensions?
You, who placed them in my sphere.
Did you extend them from yourself
With planned impact? I'm left
With paltry senses to respond
And am unequal to the task.

*****

Evening Hours (c. 1980)

The love songs are
on the stereo – sweet;
The hour is late and
the kids are away.

Now comes the time to
talk and share,
love and dream, and
add up our lives.

In the sweet silence
of our night together
we touch and know
we'll share tomorrow.

In daylight our toils
make a better place
for us and for
all the world.

Tomorrow night in moon
and still sair,
we'll meet, my love
and do it all again.

*****

Late Summer Night

Midnight silence deep surrounds me –
The dark stir of air, muggy and hot
That saps the inner strength from me.
The humid sky holds a half-lit
Dull moon and but a few lackluster
Stars that send no messages tonight.

Where are the crisp fall nights –
My breath would steam out
And make a halo around
The moon for just a second –
Or the harbinger stars of
Spring that late at night
Showed the summer triangle
of Vega, Denab, Altair.

Yes, the triangle shows through
The hot hazy sky – but who
Cares now. The moments to look
Upon the heavens are past and
I have but earthly trials to contend.

*****

More to come ...