Field Guide to the Constellations:
Each glowing light, a bit of yesterday
or 10,000 nights
or 10,000 light years ago.
If you choose to remember,
the past is always there.
Just look up-
there lies Cassiopeia Hercules Cygnus Draco-
string them together,
wear them as a crown.
night settles in
shaking its feathers
and preening the stars
Bushel baskets of lamp lit stars
spill across the Ozark night’s sky,
tied together with lustrous constellations
and ‘wish I may, wish I might’ longings.
Rare and precious,
these nights, these singular nights,
when the lonesome stars will lean down
so close, we bump our heads on them.
Gathering the celestial windfalls,
along our evening’s path,
we fill our pockets with first star wishes
and carry the sparkling night sky
all the way home.
One by one,
the evening stars ignite,
torched by dusk’s retreat
into twilight.
The celestial lamplighter whistles,
sweet and low,
his lullabies to the evening stars
as he makes his way across the night’s sky.
Sweet and low,
he croons his twilight tune
as the stars hover,
ever closer,
to listen.
Come, take my hand,
we will race the stars
to the ridgetop
and sing his lullabies
to the moon,
sweet and low.
deep blue
the air is filled with the scent of sleet
and fallen stars
Gemini
Gaze on ancient brothers,
galaxy sky dancing,
graced by mythos and
gloried tales of old Rome.
Glistening twins, long dead,
guard our own nights sky and
gibbous October moon.
Orion
Onyx sky above us,
offering cold bright stars
opulent in their glory.
Only for us are these
obliged to sparkle-
ordered by heavens
own heroic hunter.
*** For dVerse Meeting the Bar prompt from Vandana Sharma. She brings us a new form “Pleiades” which was invented in 1999 by Craig Tigerman. It consists of seven lines, each line starting with the same letter as the title. The title is a single word.
fireflies
sparks of delight
on a summers night
the jealous stars
rain down
to see their rivals
pieced together in cobalt and lilac
squares of crazy quilted sky fill in scraps of the day
stitched with sharp needles of stars and comet tails
held in place by old oaks outstretched arms
reaching up until the twilight is pinned
hemmed and skirted by dusk and sweet dreams
receding day spills across the western ridge
to get swept into the corners of night
from the shadowed western ridge,
fingers of vermillion and aubergine
reach into the sapphire twilight
day’s dying sun
longing to hold the golden moment
for a last glance
last touch
last song
when suddenly,
from the darkling sky
radiant stars
erupt in dusky melodies
and indigo night begins
the speculation of stars
and the light quantified by night
sky filled dome
of past suns
eases the burden
of moon and comets
fulfilling the temporal necessities
of lunar and solar days
thecourseofourseasons 