Last chance to read The Hunter's Moon!

 

The Hunter's Moon will cede its place to the new issue at The Elevation Review at the beginning of May, so here is your last chance to read before archival on this website.  Please click on the following link to read: The Hunter's Moon by Douglas Thornton

The Hunter’s Moon

When all the sky is dark

And there is just a cloud

Of a height, illuminated

By the far away sun,

They gather what is the object

Of the world, those who try

To touch it.

The cherished

Are impressions of fullest night,

When the gleam in our eyes

Has not adjusted to the earth,

As swift and nameless birds

To hold our sight, make day

Stand firm, while the spiritual

Thought we sink down beside

Moves on at its own abiding.

Always kind in measure

Behind the ferns, or up

The hillside walking, has grief made

The animal-spirit

Known, but cannot call it by name,

Long since, in the evening’s

Low horizon, the dark

Outlines of figures lie in wait.

So bring the warm south wind

To placid waters, and the streak

Of summer’s falling star

Near the inner calmness

Of those who laugh on sunny days,

Because all of us must

Turn and face something, and even

Blindness, in a solemn

And imperturbable

Heart, yields consent in listening

To the earth; and the charm

Of joys reminiscent, which time

And slumber gave us not,

Or constant sound and hope

Of things never-ending, to lead

Us through fields of vision

With the jovial signs of chase.

Douglas Thornton