Solstice
From Wikipen
They said the moon would be brighter, tonight,
the winter solstice had the full moon rising
and it would glimmer like a beacon in the sky.
Fourteen percent brighter, said the newsman
with his smile bright and vapid, like that satellite
which really gives off no light at all;
it appears bright only by reflection
of the luminescence other bodies shine.
I suspect
there are very few original bodies of light
in the universe.
It takes less energy
to be a mirror
than a flame.
And yet where would the flame be
without some medium to transmit its brilliance?
More intense may be the fire,
close at hand,
but how few would see its light?
Tonight you quoted to me lines
whose genius could not be denied
but whose was not your own.
You never wrote so well;
you were merely the vessel
conveying the eloquence of diction and of thought,
of grace and rhythm,
and the sentiment that was no less your own
for its foreign origin.
I had never heard it,
until you whispered it to me.
Can we blame the moon
for making the best
of what it has been given?
They said the moon would be brighter tonight.
I had nearly forgotten, until you reminded me
to witness it shining through chill night air:
indeed, a shimmering, gorgeous rock
reflecting brilliance
on this winter solstice.
