for Baharak
Moonlight spreads across the landscape
and covers everything it touches in its path
with shining white – trees and bushes,
streams and ponds, narrow lanes and far fields.
Nothing will resist this unfolding of light.
It is a spirit-force we welcome, because
we are attuned to things high above us.
Moonlight sweeps over the homes housed
in long snow valleys. Inside their shelters
all people sleep the same sleep, but are visited
by different dreams, each one a special gift
of the Moon. Alas, many people forget their
Moon-gift upon awakening, or laugh it out of
their daylight lives. The Moon is forgiving.
There is one among us who needs less sleep
and the Moon grants her the Higher Dream
that contains the seeds of all the others.
She is the guardian of it through the patient
night. She lies or sits still in a lucid dream
whose radiance envelops her. Her mind is focussed
on inner currents carrying both seeds and dreams.
I am only a witness who watches her, withdrawn
in the daylight, active in the night, bend
the dark to serve human needs and make Moonlight
lavish her splendor over our incomplete lives.
In another age she would be crowned the Queen
and raised to a throne. But our guardian is content
to be a dreamer among dreamers and share the Moon’s bounty
with all who love Moonlight and cherish the dream.
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