Poetry – What’s up there? + BONUS Poem
Lynda’s poem
“What’s up there?”
Published in the Summer 2020 Issue
The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry
When a small child asks, “What’s Up There,” what do you say?
“What’s up there?
What’s up there?
At night, I wonder.
Scan the heavens – search for
Full Strawberry Moon in the eastern sky.
Astronomer’s predictions promised
spectacular lunar performance tonight.
My thoughts flow upwards towards
mysteries in the sapphire blue firmament.
Afternoons, on summer days,
I look beyond the verdant horizon lines
above treetops in the aquamarine summer sky
Curiosity returns. I stand affixed.
–
As published in The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry, Summer Issue, 2020.
Photos by Lynda McKinney Lambert. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
BONUS –
BACK STORY
The Backstory for the poem – a reflection on the Night Sky of my childhood.
A stately Black Walnut tree occupies memories of our backyard in my childhood. This solitary tree is dignified. Splendid.
Tonight, my father and I stand hand-in-hand looking up into the mysterious autumn sky. The branches stretch upwards. They disappear from our view. I have the feeling that the tree is touching the stars.
As I stand beside my father, I feel invisible as we gaze into the shifting canopy. I sense that my feet are planted into the wet dark grass. It feels magnetic, this connection I sense with the earth. I am nervous and my body trembles with fear. I ask him, “What’s up there?”
My father leans over to put his hands around my waist. He gently picks me up into his strong arms. Still frightened, and feeling cold, I hold onto him. Together we gawk into nighttime. A shimmer of fear passes through me. My throat tightens. I cannot speak.
He says, “Do not be afraid of anything you can’t see.”
BONUS POEM – a TANKA
we stand in darkness
urge distant red blood moon – Rise!
hover above trees
slip past Earth’s silvery shadow
become a total eclipse.
–
Thank you…
to the editors of The Weekly Avocet and the quarterly print magazine, The Avocet.
Editor: Charles Portolano
Co-Editors: Vivian and Valerie Portolano
The Avocet website
Contact the editors at: angeldec24@hotmail.com
You can get a copy of
The Weekly Avocet
in your mailbox every Saturday, too.
You can enter your nature-themed writing for consideration and you might find your own poetry there one morning when you open your E-mail.
Contact Charles Portolano, Editor – E-mail is cportolano@hotmail.com
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The featured poems and back story are courtesy of Lynda McKinney Lambert, American poet who lives in Western Pennsylvania. Lynda is the author of FIVE published books – available at Amazon and at all retail book outlets.
riverwoman@zoominternet.net
I welcome your inquires about my books. *