Full Cold Moon

This is the world
          of the full cold moon
and the deathless voice
          of deep December
hanging there in the black sky
          untouched by echoes of the world
this grieving world of pitiless war
          This earth is the garden of the sun
that calls out each day
          to every planted seed
to every rising flame
          of our humanity
This earth is the sun’s pastures
          its valleys its mountains
its teeming oceans
          its crystal rivers and streams
through which the shadows
          of salmon trout glide
and are gone
          as a gust of articulate breath
This is the world of incantations
          of truths that are never in season
the world of necessary words

I say :
          teach my soul to bow
before the bountiful glories of this world
          my heart touched
by the gentle folds of beauty in her smile
          and in the never-dying rose
the butterfly that flutters
          before my eyes
the tree that enters my hands
          that strives to bring mercy
and understanding
          where there is enmity
Love’s inmost part lies in peace
          in the disdain for bombs and guns
We are the world’s breath
          its hope and its passion
we are the tender tissue
          that makes sense of life
the earth’s expression of beauty
          the dusting of light that defies
the full cold moon
          of deep December

John Lyons