long night moon

by Jill Crainshaw

i wonder

as i wander

if the owl that once in a blue moon sat

on the reformed church-eave next door

will weather a damp december eve

to wait with me and the tiny terrier for

the sleeping beauty of this solstice night

to lift her yellow-gold head up from

a wintry horizon to cast her spell

one more time upon weary waiting eyes

i wonder

as i wander

if the advent moon will whisper-sing

through vulnerable arms of unclothed trees

she who full and overflowing has

poured out light like wildflower

honey over purple mountaintops

and spilled silver tears onto

too-new burial places

i wonder

as i wander

if the owl will call out

across midwinter cedar tops—

in praise of star-fall and

long night moon

as the tiny terrier

throws her head back

and howls and howls

* * * * *

Jill Crainshaw is a professor at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She enjoys exploring how words give voice to unexpected ideas, insights and visions.