Dark of the Moon

Chapter 40: Day’s Ending (Tucson)

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About This Book

A collection of lyric poems organized into thematic sections that dwell on natural landscapes, seasonal change, and intimate emotion. Short, image-driven pieces range from moonlit nights and coastal scenes to autumnal boulevards and secluded woods, often pairing precise sensory detail with reflections on longing, love, memory, and mortality. Portraits of individuals and quiet elegies appear alongside meditations on stars and tides, producing a restrained, musical voice that emphasizes transience and beauty through concise, resonant language.

Day’s Ending
(Tucson)

Aloof as aged kings,

Wearing like them the purple,

The mountains ring the mesa

Crowned with a dusky light;

Many a time I watched

That coming-on of darkness

Till stars burned through the heavens

Intolerably bright.

It was not long I lived there

But I became a woman

Under those vehement stars.

For it was there I heard

For the first time my spirit

Forging an iron rule for me,

As though with slow cold hammers

Beating out word by word:

“Only yourself can heal you,

Only yourself can lead you,

The road is heavy going

And ends where no man knows;

Take love when love is given,

But never think to find it

A sure escape from sorrow

Or a complete repose.”