I work a lot and live far less than I could,
but the moon is beautiful and there are
blue stars . . . . I live the chaste song of my
heart.
-Garcia Lorca to Emilia Llanos Medinor,
November 25, 1920

The moon is in doubt
over whether to be
a man or a woman.

There've been rumors,
all manner of allegations,
bold claims and public lies:

He's belligerent. She's in a funk.
When he fades, the world teeters.
When she burgeons, crime blossoms.

O how the operatic impulse wavers!
Dip deep, my darling, into the blank pool.


About this poem
"How to write an old-fashioned poem to the moon-that luminous orb so swaddled in myth, ensnared in the silvery web of its own symbolism? For eons we have sung to it, shouted at it, wept or frolicked in the shadows or stood under its glow as our spirit howled. Why does the moon call us? Why do we yearn to be called, to step off the hyphen?"
-Rita Dove

About Rita Dove
Rita Dove is the author of "Sonata Mulattica" (W.W. Norton, 2009). She teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville, Va.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2015 Rita Dove. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate