Tag Archives: Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse, for dVerse Poets, Mar 2, 2025

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Lunar Eclipse

Last night I rose to watch the moon’s eclipse––
a blood orange moon, full in the dark night sky,
around it, scattered stars and tall palm tips.

It was as though in this world, only I
watched the last fingernail of glowing moon,
chewed at by shadow, slowly wane and die.

And then the night birds with their lonely croon
gave timbre to this darkened night soon joined
by lonely burro, braying for the moon

as though they mourned for vision now purloined
or simply sang for joy of adding to
the beauty of this dark moon newly coined.

Then once again the moon’s edge came to view.
Earth moved aside in favor of the sun
and for an hour, I watched as moonlight grew.

Then sought my bed, the pageant not yet done,
as light increased and shadow slowly waned.
Inevitably, once more light had won.

For dVerse Poets Open Link Night

Sunflower: For FOTD, Oct 14, 2023 (The Day of the Solar Eclipse)

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This seemed to me to be an appropriate post for the day of the sun’s eclipse!  See my earlier post about the solar eclipse HERE .

See Cee’s incredible water lily HERE.

Shadowlands

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Spiral
  • Click on first photo and then on arrows to enlarge all.

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Shadows.

On the Night of the Blood Moon

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Click on the first photo to enlarge all.

I just couldn’t stop taking photos of the moon on this night of a full lunar eclipse. These may not be the best shots, but I was out there for two hours and I’m soooo sleepy. Strangely, this poem I posted earlier this year to one of Mark’s prompts popped up with the photos in my media file when I posted them. Don’t know how its link got recorded as a jpeg nor how it got here, but it seems to want to be posted again, so here it is:

Lucid Moon

With half a life lived in the dark,
an owl’s hoot, an answering bark,
the moon across the water scattered,
ragged clouds, wispy and battered––

I float in night and solitude,
the night determining my mood.
I lie in darkness and I brood,
a nightly lucid interlude.

When sunlight comes in fits and starts,
The day brings out my other parts.
They rise in me from dawn to noon,
dispelling powers of the moon.

Thus balanced between dark and light,
each half consumes its daily bite.
I welcome each within its time
Life varied, balanced and sublime.

Matt’s prompt today was “Lucidity.”  The common meaning of “Lucid” is “clearly expressed” or “easy to understand,” but another meaning is “bright or luminous.”

Eclipse

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IMG_5581jdbphoto

Pollyanna

If we choose to hide the light,
and bring about a quickened night,
no one else can ease our plight
as darkness limits heart and sight.

Yet take a lesson from the sun
that is not hidden from anyone
for more than a short time before
a crack appears beside her door.

What hides her light moves on and then
light is restored as it has been.
So find that brightness at your core.
Perpetual darkness is a bore.

The prompt today was “Eclipse.“

Terza Rima for Earth’s Shadow

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What shadow bigger than a lunar eclipse? I am lucky enough to have seen the eclipse of two blood moons in Mexico.  Below are photos or links to photos of each, along with a rewrite of a poem I wrote after witnessing the first one.

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Lunar Eclipse

Last night I rose to watch the full eclipse––
a blood orange moon, full in the dark night sky,
around it, scattered stars and tall palm tips.

It was as though in this world, only I
watched the last fingernail of glowing moon,
chewed at by shadow, slowly wane and die.

And then the night birds with their lonely croon
gave timbre to this darkened night soon joined
by lonely burro, braying for the moon

Perhaps they mourned for vision now purloined
or simply sang for joy of adding to
the beauty of this dark moon newly coined.

Then once again the moon’s edge came to view.
Earth moved aside in favor of the sun
and for an hour, I watched as moonlight grew.

I sought my bed, the pageant not yet done,
as light increased and shadow slowly waned.
Inevitably, once more light had won.

The ending known, no mystery remained.

This poem is written in terza rima, a form invented by Dante and used in The Divine Comedy. It consists of three-line stanzas, with a “chained” rhyme scheme. The first stanza is ABA, the second is BCB, the third is CDC, and so on. No particular meter is necessary, but English poets have tended to default to iambic pentameter. One common way of ending a terza rima poem is with a single line standing on its own, rhyming with the middle line of the preceding three-line stanza.

See more blood moon photos here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/09/27/eclipse-of-the-blood-moon-over-mexico/

And smaller shadows here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/09/03/reflections-shadows-cees-black-and-white-challenge/

 

If you want to write to this prompt, you can post what you’ve written here:  https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/shadow/

Lunar Eclipse #1

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Since we also had a full Lunar Eclipse in 2014, I’m reblogging a poem I wrote for the first one. The photos are also from that eclipse.  I was able to capture the full eclipse last time, but the cloud cover prevented that this time.  I did capture it for most of its cycle, however, and you can view tonight’s pictures HERE.

                                                                     Lunar Eclipse

Image

Lunar Eclipse

Last night I rose to watch the full eclipse––
a blood orange moon, full in the dark night sky,
around it, scattered stars and tall palm tips.

It was as though in this world, only I
watched the last fingernail of glowing moon,
chewed at by shadow, slowly wane and die.

And then the night birds with their lonely croon
gave timbre to this darkened night soon joined
by lonely burro, braying for the moon

as though they mourned for vision now purloined
or simply sang for joy of adding to
the beauty of this dark moon newly coined.

Then once again the moon’s edge came to view.
Earth moved aside in favor of the sun
and for an hour, I watched as moonlight grew.

Then sought my bed, the pageant not yet done,
as light increased and shadow slowly waned.
Inevitably, once more light had won.

The ending known, no mystery remained.

Image

Our prompt today was to write a poem in terza rima, a form invented by Dante and used in The Divine Comedy. It consists of three-line stanzas, with a “chained” rhyme scheme. The first stanza is ABA, the second is BCB, the third is CDC, and so on. No particular meter is necessary, but English poets have tended to default to iambic pentameter. One common way of ending a terza rima poem is with a single line standing on its own, rhyming with the middle line of the preceding three-line stanza.

Here is a link to the pictures I took of the lunar eclipse on September 27 & 28 of 2015! https://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/09/27/eclipse-of-the-blood-moon-over-mexico/

Eclipse of the Blood Moon Over Mexico

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Blood Moon Over Mexico

Version 3

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Before I went swimming tonight, I set up my camera and tripod. My first view of the eclipse was in my pool.  Palm Tree Silhouettes in front, the moon which had just come out of the cloud cover had just a sliver of shadow. I came in to dry off and went back out to take these shots. It was strange, because I kept getting an illusion of a pink cloud floating over the moon.  It was granular–a bit like like pink undissolved Jello powder floating in water.  There was definite movement.  Perhaps it was a cloud layer reflecting the red of the moon. I’m curious if anyone else had the same experience  It was when I had the most magnification on my zoom–nearly 120 I think.

At any rate, palm trees water and the moon in eclipse create a sort of magic that may have just prompted a type of hypnotic illusion.  I look forward to hearing of your experiences and seeing your photographs.

You can read the poem I wrote about last year’s Blood Moon Eclipse here:  https://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/09/28/lunar-eclipse-1/

                                                                     Worldly Ritual

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One occurrence that is viewed the world over is the eclipse. In Mexico, there are still some rituals practiced.  Parents tie red cloth around their children’s wrists and the necks of animals–dogs, cattle, horses–and farmers protect their crops in the same way by tying red cloth around gates or fence posts. I wrote about my own lunar ritual over a year and a half ago when few present viewers were reading my blog.  My poem was written in complicated  terza rima–a form explained in that post.  To read my poem about the eclipse, go HERE.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Daily Ritual.” Think about your day. Select one of your daily rituals and explain it to us: why do you do what you do? How did you come to adopt this ritual? What happens on days when you can’t perform it?

Aztec Lily under a full Eclipse of the Moon

After I’d tried rather unsucessfully to capture numerous pictures of the full moon in eclipse last night, I managed to capture this Aztec Lily that just bloomed that day.