The Day the Moon Smiled and a Poem

There is one face that is familiar to all people.  Every nation that ever existed even in the farthest reaches of the earth know this face.  It is the moon.  The man in the moon has been watching humanity since our beginnings, and we all know his face.  I have been fascinated with the moon all my life, and even though I know the moon is unchanging, I have witnessed a profound change in the man in the moon.

Ever since I was a baby and first turned my gaze to the moon, I saw in its frozen face a sad expression.  No matter what art had depicted or what tales had been told or what other people could see, to me the face of moon was sad.  It was a woeful, mournful expression, like the moon was crying out.  I thought it was a shame that the face of the moon should hold, for eternity, such a sorrowful expression, but nothing could be done about it.  It was the moon.  It would never change.

Then, about three years ago, one night I looked up and saw the most extraordinary thing.  The moon was no longer sad.  That sorrowful expression of woe was gone.  The moon was smiling.  Laughing, even.  I was astounded.  How could these features have changed?  I was awestruck that the face of moon should show me something so different from what I had seen before.

Then, this past year, I looked up at the moon one night as I walked to my car after work, and once again the moon's face had changed.  This time, the moon was singing.  The moon was singing a soulful song, it's face full of emotion.

And so, impossible things can happen. Change can occur in the most unlikely places.

Moonsongs

by: Mary Wojciechowski

Enchanting moon

You pull the waters from the shores

And the secrets you steal from our hearts

Are replaced by your tremulous moonsongs.

Heavenly moon

Your river flows

Like a stream of darkness

Delighting my soul with ripples of stars

Washing away reality and lies.

Distant moon

Your ever changing, ever different

Face is the faceless lover to my dreams

Which nightly dance at your silver threshold.

Mysterious moon

The songs you spin from my dreams

Sing from my frightened outstretched heart

And fills the voids of space with music

Your enchanting moonsongs.



*Photo from Space.com, "This ... photo of the moon was taken by astronauts on the International Space Station during the Expedition 24 mission, mid-2010. CREDIT: Rocscosmos."