Moon Acumen Poem by gershon hepner

Rusalka, a water nymph,
with a human being falls
in love. No opera or symph-
ony can reproduce her calls,
when she attempts to find her human
by crying to the moon. “Please use,
when he awakes, your moon acumen
to bring him to me.” Such a ruse
might work in operas that, tuney,
ignore reality with song,
but any woman who’s as looney
as Rusalka won’t last for long.

Inspired by René Fleming’s performance of the aria “Ode to the Moon” which Rusalka sings in Dvorak’s opera by that name. Like the little mermaid, the water nymph Rusalka falls in love with a human and wants to become human herself. She asks the Moon to find the man she loves. 'Help him remember his dreams of me, tell him I'm waiting for him, make him remember me when he awakens. O Moon, do not falter! '

7/28/08