*moonlight Sestina Poem by Lillian Susan Thomas

*moonlight Sestina

Rating: 3.0


While reading Li Po, I fall
Asleep, and dream of the moon
My body lies on white
Cool sheets, flooded in a pool
Of moonlight. Lost in a dream
I lie in light, floating.

Like a full moon floating
On waves, I feel the fall
And rise, the tide of these dream
Currents. Closer, the moon
Approaches to my pool
Of flesh, shining me white.

From the glare of waxing white,
Gauze curtains – breeze floating -
Shield this rippling pool,
Become a waterfall,
And break the mirror moon-
Light through wet prisms, I dream.

Is this Shechinah? my dream
Self asks. At once the cold white
Chills me to ice. The moon
Swells until it's a floating
City, waiting to fall -
Atlantis – in the pool.

I yearn to be that pool
Skin, transparent as dream.
Instead I fear the moon fall:
I cannot part the white
Sea of thighs, Still floating
Whole, I cry to the moon:

“I am not ready, Moon”
Silence shimmers my pool,
But brightness fades, Floating
Away. Then from the dream
I emerge, weeping white
Tears that shine like star-fall.

Li Po's moon plunge sank dream
Deep. Whirlpool of lunar white
Drowns us; floating, we fall.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Adeline Foster 05 August 2009

Lillian: Very well done. The sestina is not so hard to write as it is to make it flow. You have done that admirably. And the title is exquisite. One of the best sestinas ever written is Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘September rain falls on the house’. It is one of my very most favorite poems. Adeline

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Susan Jarvis 03 August 2009

Lillian, this is superb! This is such a difficult form, yet, with the essence of Li Po floating beneath, this surreal and spiritual poem is lifted far beyond the form's constraints. This is a beautiful piece that has been a real privilege to read. I'm in awe of your gift. S :)

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Paul Hansford 02 August 2009

The sestina is a difficult form to write, and very often the wonder is (as Dr Johnson said of a woman preaching or a dog walking on its hind legs) not that it is done well, but that it is done at all. But this one is done exceptionally well; the mechanism of the poem fades into the background and leaves us with a beautiful rendering of what sounds like a real experience. This poem leaves the points system far behind.

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Sonya Florentino 31 July 2009

this is so abstract it reads like a dream... a beautiful peaceful dream which slowly loses its beauty as one slowly wakes up....to reality....

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