Does The Evening Have A Face Poem by gershon hepner

Does the evening have a face
That is recognized by night?
Does it stand upon a base,
Lower than nocturnal height?

Has it arms like cocktail waiters,
Does it dress up for a meal?
Does it lack the serious status
Of the night—sans sex appeal?

Starry eyed, pray tell me, dreamer,
Foolish poet from abroad,
When is nighttime a redeemer,
Claiming evening’s reward?

Written after a lunar eclipse, inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem “Will There Really Be a Morning? ” which Ricky Ian Gordon, composer of Orpheus and Eurydice, put to music in 1998:

Will there really be a morning?
Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?

Has it feet like water-lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?

Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!
Oh, some wise man from the skies!
Please to tell a little pilgrim
Where the place called morning lies!

2/20/08