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