Lunar eclipse poetry

After I published pictures yesterday of the weekend's lunar eclipse, Lyn Moir sent me two pictures she'd taken in St Andrews, Fife.

She also sent me a copy of this poem. It is a slight reworking of an earlier poem about the 2001 eclipse which was first published in Poetry Scotland.

LUNAR ECLIPSE 2007

No wild coronas blazing in the dark,
no rings of fire, no diamonds in the sky,
your shadowing more subtle than the blind
black masking of your lover's face, no stark
annihilation of the light, you mark
this darkness with passivity, resigned
to loss of his reflection, dignify
your enforced mourning with consummate art

and summon up the spectrum, put on shades
of crimson, scarlet, purple, blue, a screen
to cloak your temporary widowhood;
you flaunt voluptuous contours as light fades,
gaining solidity, and with it seem
to change, to be the entity you should.

Lyn Moir

I wrote a haiku sequence at the time of the 2001 eclipse. It was translated into Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and published by SARM (Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)

ECLIPSE SEQUENCE by Gerald England SECVENTELE ECLIPSEI in romaneste de Andrei Dorian Gheorghe January 9th 2001
bright full moon shines through thin cloud - a plane flies over	luminoasa luna plina straluce prin nor subtire- un avion zboara deasupra-i
the shadow bites - level with big planets Capella shines	umbra musca nivel cu mari planete Capella straluceste
four-fifths gone more stars appear Venus fades	patru-cinci duse mai multe stele apar Venus se ofileste
from her sick-bed my wife watches the action on television	din patu-i de boala sotia mea priveste actiunea la televizor
frosty night - deep red disc in Gemini	noapte inghetata disc rosu adanc in Gemenii
light rays spread to Pollux and Castor - crescent emerges	raze de lumina se raspandesc spre Castor si Pollux- crescente rasarind
half moon Procyon and Sirius twinkle low	luna jumatate Procyon si Sirius licaresc incet
small shadow left the biting wind sends me indoors	mica umbra scade vantul muscator ma trimite inauntru
the whole moon south in winter sky - curtains close	luna intreaga sud in cer de iarna- cortinele se trag